This was changed in tax code by congress to fund the affordable care act.

oh and THANK YOU for your service.

However, I went to the first meeting and the main speaker was an out-of-town guy giving a super high-pressure sales job for some MLM program called "Financial Education Services Protection", which didn't actually have anything to do with real estate, other than he was pitching us to pressure credit challenged prospects into buying this (my opinion) predatory program.

I'm looking to switch my service any advice on which one I should use 

Also these houses are less targeted at students and more section 8.So you need to figure out how much you want to put in to buy the house, how much you can afford in rehab costs. and how long you can wait until the house is ready for rent.

If you cannot afford to pay a property manager, and you don't want to quit your Job, then you should consider paying down some loans to improve cash flow rather than buying more units.

They are affordable, but the HOA fees and the politics involved make me leary.

Price is relative to the person who can afford it.

I know about the services Costar offers, but I'm wondering who or where typically has this information on hand locally?

@Eric TomlinUnless you have other non-traditional investments in mind, the checkbook control provided by an IRA LLC would be more tool than you likely require.Check out Kingdom Trust Co or IRA Services Trust Co.