Just need to look up the taxes paid (found online probably) and take a guess at insurance based on what you pay for your tri-plex.I personally make the "property value growth" at 1% for worst case.

There are administrator companies that do tasks like these.You might want to search for them and call them to see what kind of fees they are charging and see if it is inline with your current families setup.

Your other option is to hire a property manager who will do those tasks for you while you collect a check (and manage the property manager).

There are other good cities too, but in general I go for the markets/cities that have steady population growth, multiple industries, in general growing markets.

I am also open to any other advice/tools that can be used to evaluate and possibly predict the swings of the RE market(s).Also, if anyone knows of any specific areas poised for high growth (with supporting data) within the next few years please let me know.Thanks!

Scott said, he talks a lot about cycles and demographic/job growth areas for goes for high probability of appreciation looking nationally.  

Just curious, once closing on a property what are some important steps or tasks that should be completed asap?

If you buy solid houses in areas that have job and population growth, you should do well.Good Luck,Robert

Have a solid full business plan of what you are planning on doing, what resources will be needed, who are the parties involved (attorney, accountant, other investors), what is the business strategy (wholesaling, flipping, buy and hold), what is the market (upper income, working class), economic factors (is it a raising area or declining area of job growth, population size, businesses moving in or out).So many times I talk to new investors who have looked at one or two houses and want to borrow $100k from someone because it looks like a good deal.

I only have a few pages left.I did manage to complete a few other tasks this week, one of which was to attend a number of open houses earlier today.