Things were progressing, a little slower than planned, but coming along at very inexpensive rates.

I did the labor myself (with some inexpensive assistance) and managed to keep the costs down as a result.And as a side note -- familiarity was key influencer.

Podio can be a great tool to use for your business and its fairly inexpensive. 

I know that's not a LOT, but I do best with checklists and systems, and so I am looking for an inexpensive software I can see to keep track of things such as deadlines and due dates both in the offer and due diligence stages, and for use wit tenants.

I'm trying to find a inexpensive way to start the direct mail campaign.

I can't answer your question well about locations, and I know that is a problem (living in expensive areas is rough for the beginner real estate investor!)

You can get inexpensive hosting with drag and drop editing to create websites.

I may also get involved in buying some lots suitable for building, if I can get them very inexpensively, as there is not now, nor do I expect there to soon be much building going on around here for a while, until the foreclosure market gets bought up more. 

There's always some kind of built-in expense ratios for things like vacancy, property management (even if you're not using one), reserves, etc.The other problem I see may be the appraisal. 

I download the bank and CC statements to venerable and inexpensive old Quicken, which also prints the rare checks to contractors etc, where I categorize them and they're ready for a report to the accountant.