The prior post is right on target in that you must track down deals where the buyer is ready to sell at a major discount.

They have been proven accurate over and over.

You WILL have vacany and you WILL need to make repairs.Without a track record for the property you will need to make your best guess for vacancy and repair.

Learn from proven guys and gals.

Not to mention Dale Earnhardt Jr. is expected to build a 6 track speedway surrounded by a dozen hotels and numerous restaurants.

Especially if I haven't done that type of investment before and have no way to know if they are on track or not.

Especially, when you come from opposite sides of the track in your thinking.

If you are just talking about leads and that's all you care to track, then there are a million free systems out there.

Probably can't be measured in pure $$ but will make living there more enjoyable.Adding a bath is IMO (and statistically proven) a moneymaker, particularly if you can do most/all work yourself, partiuclarly the "finish" like tiling, because it's very labor intensive.IIRC single bath houses have been considered "technologically" obsolete since the early '80 by the Amer.

Perhaps a naive question, but for someone like myself looking to purchase my first 2 properties this year, could someone walk me through the benefits of using quickbooks pro vs simply keeping track of income and expenses in an excel spreadsheet?