This is somewhat difficult in RE, because owning 1 place for even 2, 3, 5 years does not provide you a lot of data and takes a damn long time.

Seems like most of the deal syndicators use the IRR as their advertised return which can be misleading especially if it is based on 2-3 years of interest only loan and then an exit in a certain amount of years at a fixed price which is pretty damn hard to predict what a property is worth, far out into the future. 

And my SEO.. is... ahem.. damn good, if I may say so myself.In fact.. my SEO is good BECAUSE I did it myself.My dude, SEO is free... if you learn it and do it yourself. 

Investing out of state takes a lot of gut, you will need a kick@ss team and an outstanding property manager, which is the probably the most difficult to find.So far I am finding that OH, TN, GA and MS could be great potential markets depending on your goals.Look for growing population, city master plans, job growth, unemployment figures, business friendliness and so on.And never be afraid to ask, there are many ‘big-time’ guys here reading these posts.Good luck!

Providing you take care of any outstanding maintenance needs while you are homesteading the property and properly screen your new/first tenants (aka: don't get too antsy to get tenants over getting the right tenants), it should be a relatively pain-free process. 

@Jason DiClemente would it be normal then for the utility company to ask the landlord/homeowner to pay the outstanding bill?

In that case, your calculation would be (Outstanding Loan Amount * (Interest Rate / 12)) = Monthly Interest Payment.

It's almost Cypress, damn close. 

damn math!

Contrary to above, even if you have no idea how to do something, you can figure it out and still do a pretty damn good job if you're willing to learn along the way and maybe do it more than once to get it right.