Then I asked questions and bought tools.

I would say start off with small residential or multifamily deals so you can expand your network and tool belt of mortgage brokers, inspectors, and others.

@Ashish Acharya, I would buy tools through the company, and then have some income on the book for end-of-year taxes. 

That gives them all the tools they need for success, and it provides the motivation to prevent them from sitting on their laurels.

HELOC's are great tools.

Since the property doesn't cash flow, what kind of metrics / analysis / tools do I use to guage appreciation potential?

They should have tools and knowledge on how to analyze the performance and potential of a property.5.

Don't be the first-time investor (like I was) who quickly bought a decent deal, only to find a MUCH better deal 3 weeks later, but be forced to pass on it because my capital was tied-up.I want to share my favorite tool for modeling real estate deals - I found it through the BiggerPockets podcast.

None of these guys have real trim carpentry experience or are willing to travel and operate with the right tools for it, so when they put the trim back it often looks like a monkey did it.All that being said, I'm in no-hurricane western PA.

I'll speak to my experience there is a lot of power in mastering one market.