While you are waiting for that to happen, educate yourself on how to properly screen tenants and mitigate risk for when the bad ones sneak through.I use situations like this to educate myself and build policy to prevent the same problem from happening again.

I figured I would start up a thread to follow the deal, the numbers, and contribute to the forum with education!

Once you've got a good place to live sorted out I feel like you can focus more intently on getting educated and hunting for deals.

You still need to go through the P&L's and figure out which line items need to be addressed.Bob, Nice to see you coming around trying to again educate me on CAP rate again.  

But like I said, I've been educating myself with real estate and doing the real thing is something I've not done.

My main reason for wanting a license (aside from the educational aspect) is to be able to search the MLS on my own without the need for a realtor.

Can somebody educate me on that?

Did you read any books that helped you get started or do you have any recommendations for someone in the education phase of investing? 

Questions #3 - Is there any do or don't advice you could inform me of that would better help me educate myself on how to go about this without wasting time and money on areas that may not be beneficial or helpful?

I got a college education in business that emphasized real estate.