Anyways, I was talking to our conventional financing lender about this next step, and she mentioned that unlike new residential loans, their company won't be able to use the income from the leases on the new apartment building until we file our taxes in 2019, and then they would use the income from our Tax Statement. 

I think that @Cara Lonsdale hit the nail pretty close to the head on this one.From my experience, for a residential (1-4 unit) loan, the bank is going to use standard underwriting practices including DTI (unless they are going to portfolio the loan, in which case looking at DSCR would be the wisest choice in my opinion).However, just to clarify a bit:My experience is that they are going to do a personal DTI, not a property-only DTI (again, unless they portfolio, in which case they can do whatever they want).

As 'Real Estate' is widely expansive, I am specifically looking to take my first step and learn the fundamentals and basics.About Me:I'm originally from Courtice, Canada.

If you can't work deals at tighter margins - then you can't do MLS; (2) you need follow-up, people put random stuff under contract all the time, once it falls through you can step in - but you need to be there.

I would give her only a few days (other landlords can weigh in with Best Practice) to move out, clean, sign-off on ending lease mutually, only pay after inspection of property (and utilities, apparently, if you think she's breaking them) is complete and satisfactory.

Fredy congrats on taking the first step towards real estate investing!

I was wondering if others commonly request the seller / landlord's tax returns when buy a rental property. if so what is the common practice for this. would it have to go through an attorney to scrub the personal info?

Start practicing appraising properties and/or deals.

@Olivia Umoren, first let me congratulate you on taking the step towards recognizing that RE is a GR8 investment if done wisely. 

I feel the answers to these questions will provide solid ground for any newbie who is thinking "what should my next steps be".1) How much should a new flipper expect to come out of pocket for when doing first couple of flips?