If you "tell little white lies" there's a reasonable chance people will find out anyway, then you'll REALLY look bad!

Lessons learned: always maintain cash reserves for maintenance/repairs, fire bad contractors pronto, be friendly with renters but not friends, a decent buyer's agents do not make a good seller's agent, I must always keep my thumb on the numbers and eyes on the contractors, and as with anything else -- you get what you pay for when it comes to contractors Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

For class A, you'll be lucky to get 1%, but you can likely find a higher quality tenant.  

Im not hearing alot of Pros for this idea. sounds like its a bad idea..... why is this strategy even concidered or referenced to flippers?

If I were you, I would learn all sorts of things about personal finance and real estate investing, sure, but I would spend a lot of quality time (and money) on furthering my education and having a social life that includes going out on a lot of dates.Here's my reasoning: if you look at all the millionaire households in the USA, as of 2009 95% of them are headed up by a married couple or widow/widower.

. $425k certainly sounds low for a rehabbed 4-plex currently in Tacoma, and so I'd suspect either very bad neighborhood or perhaps some issues with that 4th unit being non-conforming.

That chimney should definitely get a stainless steel liner If the chimeny liners in bad shape if there even is one.

What are your experiences with leases and what makes for a good lease or a bad lease. 

The kitchen is the heart of the home, spend the money on a nice quality product. 

Just factor in fixing the reason the basement flooded (could be easy like clogged gutters or extending the down spouts or maybe the sump pump hasn't worked because the electric is off or it could be expensive like digging around the foundation, parging the walls and then adding a french drain or could be real expensive and have a cracked foundation so you need to know) mold remediation and door replacement (if they're really bad) into the renovation figures.