New to the REI community and looking to get some great guidance and advice from the seasoned vets and learn as much as I can.Have been doing some initial research into Multi-family, buy-and-hold, (>,=2 units) in the Chicagoland area (mainly western suburbs, Brookfield, LaGrange, Downers Grove, Wheaton, and the like) and found some units with potential.Here's my current question:I've found a property that I believe has some potential.

Also, a lot of bigger banks have some REO's listed on their websites, but they hold back a ton of inventory called "Shadow Inventory."

Multifamily buy and hold properties seem to be what I have my eyes on currently.

Specifically  flipping houses, and buy and hold in the Georgia market.

My wife and I have partnered with my parents for our first buy and hold rental property and we are eager to find our next opportunity.

What hurts Investors that use this formula is it does not account for Holding Costs, Backend Selling Costs, etc.I use the following formula to determine my Maximum Allowable Offer (MAO).

I collect a convertible "Holding Deposit" for any unit I hold for a tenant - for any length of time.

I am interested in learning more about Buy & Hold rental property investing, especially in specific areas of Ventura County, California and Cleveland/Lakewood, Ohio.

My strategy would be buy, remodel, rent and hold rather than flip them - looking at the cash flow instead of depending on appreciation.It would be difficult to manage a purchase of a property from a broad and tenancy agreement, but even more difficult to manage a remodel!  

Wanted to see if anyone has some tips for simple and effective bookkeeping for buy-and-hold rental properties.