Our town just did a revaluation and got close to 100% but the market constantly changes and prices continue to trend upwards meaning the 100% valuation is likely already not accurate.

Given that he's got a long history in business but is struggling to cover $30k in Op-ex and marketing spend, my guess is that this is either not very well managed or is in distress.

Hello everyone, With deciding to start in real estate, my main goal is to create enough equity in the properties I obtain to build a house and buy land  (10-12) years down the line.Though the market always changes, I figured with investing into highly appreciating markets now, the properties I buy will accumulate the equity needed to be able to sell in the future which in turn will lead to the income needed to build and buy land. 

In any market, you need to analyze median income, and crime, and that will help predict where you will have more challenges collecting rent.Every city has their challenges with vacancy.

Once you have that, you can look at what similar properties in your market are doing for design.

They may come up but understand that rental rates are generally well below market (hence the discount) and these deals are largely off-market if you're able to find them.

We backed out of that deal because there was a freeze that hit Texas market, and that freeze caused a bunch of plumbing issues.

It may be common in your market.

In today's market current inflation is actually higher than the rate we are paying to borrow for 30 years. 

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.