Either there are short cuts, bad neighborhoods, etc. 

Which on the low side would give you ~ 950+1125 =2075 in rent lets take this as your starting point Gross income for the year 24,900Now that we have an estimated rent / Gross Income lets start accounting for things...Gross Income (GI): 24,900Vacancy: -1,494 (6%)Total Gross Operating Income (GOI): 23,406Expenses...Property management: -2,490 (assuming 10%)Repairs and maintenance: -1,245 (assuming 5%)CapEx: -2,490 (assuming 10%, I generally do a calculation for this on the age of every CapEx item for a property and it is generally around 5%, but this is a duplex so I am taking a short cut and doubling it since you have two of everything except the roof)Taxes: -2,512 (From the eprop tax site for Sac)Water / Sewer / Garbage: -2,880 (Approximate, generally around 120 per month per house, again doubled for duplex, you could pass this on to the tenant potentially but accounting for it for now)Insurance:  -1,400 (this is a pure guess here)Total Expenses: -13,017 ~55.6% of GOI or 52.3% of GI Net Operating Income (NOI): 10,389Now that we have an expected NOI we need to figure out how much you can pay for this property and still make the return you are looking for. 

Now you see the sarcasm in my reply, yet it is sarcasm that is founded on truth.In reality, I hate to see people enter into a new venture haphazardly - leaving a wake of destruction in their path (especially at the expense of others).  

We have not even discussed paint or cabinets.Sometimes you cannot shortcut "dirt on the boots".That is construction speak for experience.  

It had been customized for Texas in a haphazard way and did not adequately cover the broad topic of contracts.

Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to success.

There are no short cuts - - it takes a lot of time and effort to learn the basics.

There is no SHORT CUT in real estate. 

What I'm trying to say is don't haphazardly take courses at a college without a clear goal and path to achieve a bankable degree.

After reading all of the responses I've gotten, I plan on not ignoring or hap-hazardly paying attention to this rule.