Our basic goal is to build a portfolio of positive cash flowing multi family properties in up and coming neighborhoods around the city.

Basically I have a seller who’s selling his house, I spoke with him a couple of times even got to see the house in person, he has a tenant there and said he has an offer already but he’s still exploring his options.

Now, taking a loan with 5% interest rate, 15 year amortization and 20% down, the monthly payment comes to about $6,950.In the above example, since the cap rate is greater than the interest rate, my thinking was that I will make some positive cash flow in the end, and that the cash-on-cash (with 20% down in this case) will be higher than the cap rate (which is basically 100% down).

First of all you don't have as much control of your expenses, and HOA's love to under-collect annually and then sock you with large one-time special assessments to do repairs.  

I hope that helps you assess the ROI.

However, I was wondering if you have recommendations for books or sites that offer basic to intermediate information for those of us starting out and really trying to establish a good base of knowledge.

Basically what should I be reading up on to prepare myself for the realtor exam 

I’m a basic meme bet and I have a feeling that I may be clicking links that only pro members can see.

But could one do a quick delayed finance, get some cash back, rehab the property and add equity, put a renter in, and then refinance to basically get all his cash back?

The longer you rent — and at a loss to boot — the longer you expose yourself to vacancies, wear and tear, or (God forbid) an HOA assessment or litigation.