Doing this allowed me to walk into a prospective purchase and walk out 15 -20 minutes later with a number in my head that would more often than not be within 10% of what it actually cost.

Steve,The answer is it depends (I hate that answer;).It depends on the amount of time you can commit, the quality of the property you purchase, the type of tenants you have, if you self manage or outsource, how organized you are, etc.As with most things, you should walk before you try to run so I would urge starting 'smaller' and in a few years moving up if you still want to.

They always put a bandaid on everything and just walked away.

Having a good Realtor to walk you thru the process helps too.

I would want to nail that down with Estoppel certs and walk if it turns out the seller is trying to dump his problem in your lap.

I made the initial walk with a GC and have his quote but am looking to see if I can run some options to stay on or under budget!

There may be no damage during your quarterly walk through, then they run into a garage door the last week they live there (for example).

Didn't you do a walk through prior to closing? 

No noticeable disasters on walk through but feels like I should probably run from it.

After walking through the property, i determined that the property is not worth 600k as is.