The best one I have seen is George Coats "Smart Trust Deed Investment in California".  

I find it hard to believe it is as easy as siting in the back of a REIA with a trench coat offering stacks of 100 dollar bills to everyone passing and breaking knee caps when they do not pay up.

Maybe if you do that, get the carpets cleaned and maybe a fresh coat of paint will do it.

So between cap rate and loan rate you might get a 40 to 65 basis points total bump on return but are putting more capital down.If someone is looking for ultra high cap rate, low price point, newly minted leases with national tenant, great loan terms, and high quality location they are simply dreaming.A great broker doesn't sugar coat things and tells buyer what the markets are doing whether they want to listen or not.

Often people have had to replace the pipes already, so you may have copper or PEX pipes.

There are some great ideas in the original book, things such as "A clever way to write off your kids", "writing off every penny of your vacation", bookkeeping, home office and setting up your legal entities the right way.

Why test for lead based paint if the house has 15 coats of paint over it?

Quote from @Christian Penny: Hello, my name is Christian and I am a middle aged professional living in the Covington, LA area and looking to get started in rental property investment.

Or will you use debt more modestly and not leverage every penny?

I prefer to get 2 coats of stucco applied over wire mesh with a bonding agent mixed in.