The one seller referred me to has a lot of fee, and I feel like it's more than what I would have paid on a new loan. 

That included going to the courthouse and searching records, looking up information online, checking for back taxes and such.

I ran into the same problem with ListData so I built my own list by calling the counties I wanted to mail to and talking to the tax department and asking for the IT department where I talk to a tech who maintains the online databases.

I will say if they haven't paid attention to the bank,  they probably won't to you.... but stranger things have happened. 

Just to gain education, I'm taking online real estate classes while my wife is taking in class courses.

Meaning you will earn a minor cash flow, after expenses, but the properties are being bought because they are solid investment that are always rented in top class neighborhoods, so the investors are looking for places where they can have their mortgage paid down, and the potential of appreciation in the future, while holding an asset that will almost always be rented out.  

They are both acting as independent contractors and should be paid a fee for that.  

I thought about having a property management company manage the property but I do believe this is something I could do on my own and utilize on line screening services as well as checking local evictions public records. 

This is one of the only deals I've seen where cashflow isn't negative. 1968 triplex with 3 car garage on the market for 71 days.Purchase price: $289,900Estimated cost of repairs:  $5000ARV: $335,000 (this is best guess with what comps I was able to dig up)Closing costs: $2500Down pmt: 25% ($72,475)Loan amt: $217,425 amortized over 39 years @ 5% interestUtilities are paid by tenants so I would only have to worry about trash ($84/mo), insurance ($167/mo).Maintanance and repairs: $132.10CapEx: $264.20Vacancy: $132.10Property taxes: $279.67Rental income: $2642.00Cash flow: $415.75Cash on cash ROI: $6.24%I have not walked the property so I can't be certain what the HVAC or roof look like.  

This isn't googling how to make money passively online for 8 hours.