Study landlord basics, especially on what to include in your lease (going forward you will ALWAYS have a written lease).(2.5 Learn from mistakes and don't repeat them.)

It’s a reminder that in real estate, continuous learning and valuing experienced advice can save a lot of costly mistakes.

@Andrea LeeRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

@Fernando CarloIn our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

If you can float the vacancy worst case, whats the hold up?

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.PM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

If I would have paid more, I would have bid more)They made a mistake and thought it was a different property (there are several with the same roadname but not the same Parcel - and this was professional who was bidding on several properties)Can anyone clue me in to what the heck is goin on here? 

So many mistakes.

He gave the WORST advice on here, clearly had no idea what he was talking about then would say stuff like "Your agent is not on your team, just connect with people doing deals.

B) Worst case is I sell my current home, move into the foreclosure, live in it for 2 years, and then resell without the capital gains tax hit.