I have been fortunate to have a couple of great partners, and having things in writing is especially important in maintaining relationships that are already good, in addition to protecting yourself.

Also ask them if they are related or have any relationship (then check out both on Facebook make sure they were not parting together night before or from same city).

Luckily the landlady on the other side was very cooperative and sent a plumber who fixed it from my side since my wall was open.You also buy a relationship with the neighbor so it's a good idea to dig a bit and figured them out...I didn't btw but seem to have been lucky this time around.

@James WiseReal estate has got to be the only business arena where people with absolutely no money to invest, no experience in real estate or investing, and no ability to negotiate a deal think they can still be successful.

@Jake Barneyprobate is a courthouse records search also start building relationships with attorneys that deal will wills and probateProthonotary office is where they file legal papers find your county's office and ask them for the list most jurisdictions call it Notice of Default.Another way is to Direct Mail.

Finding tenants, leasing, accounting, maintenance, tenant relationship, issue resolution, turnover, and a ton more.

Perhaps stay in touch and build a relationship to leverage knowledge but find another knowledgable broker in your target market. 

Build relationships and see if you can find someone to partner with to get things going.

Cap rate won't matter.Hopefully you have a relationship with an agent in the local market who can help you find comps; especially if the agent knows you plan more / future investing in the market and could throw more business their way.2 years is plenty of time.DISCLAIMER: I am not an investor so take my inexperienced advice for what it's worth.

Long-term, buy & hold is a great strategy - I've always been a firm believer that you have the upper hand with these properties in the investment field because you have the advantage of being first in an area then being able to wait for appreciation for whenever you want to sell "when the time is right".Often times, these rental properties also don't involve the full scale upgrades (less money out-right) that you would need in a traditional fix-&-flip in order to hit projected ARV's.The one draw-back here is out-sourcing your rentals to a property management company - which finding the right one for the right price can take some time to vet - or else managing the property yourself, in which case you will need to start building relationships with contractors to ensure proper repairs are being done and the needs of your tenants are being met.You can do buy & holds out of state easily, too, just find the right market that is land-lord friendly (for example, mid-west: Indiana), and I think its fair to say you could do well long-term with the right properties!