HML have their place but Crowdfunding has distinct advantages that John mentioned.

Just my two cents.....I would recommend that you write down the necessary tasks in your business that 1) you like the least, 2) make you the least amount of money for your time, 3) do not negatively impact your competitive advantage if outsourced, 4) are easily transferrable and teachable to others, and 5) would free up your time to work on more profitable tasks.

What is the advantage to paying for heat for your tenants?

While looking at other peoples analyzers is helpful in understanding what kind calculations you want to do and which inputs you can (and should) gather, nothing is going to help you understand the numbers like forcing yourself to figure out how to calculate them.As this is a numbers game, this is an advantage you will want to have.Understanding all the metrics will help you smell out the BS when some is trying to show you dodgy numbers.I have a very basic excel so far and even that has gotten me to the point that I can tell real estate agents to go do their homework.

Feel free to jump in the community here and also take advantage of the treasure of knowledge here.

Where they talk about the advantages of buying performing 2nds from them? 

I had a distinct advantage as a bank examiner, banks did not fear dealing with me, even taught some a few things, investor trusted me, attorneys listened and accountants didn't argue much. 

You must (and should) depreciate investment property whether or not you are actually able to take advantage of the deduction for income tax purposes because you will be subject to depreciation recapture tax as part of the gain calculation whether you took a deduction for depreciation or not. 

Take advantage of things like building in niches in bathrooms, etc. if space is tight.

That may be important to you depending on how much you have in assets, and how many assets you will accumulate over the next 10-15 years.There are also some tax advantages to owning an LLC that you dont get with personal holdings, check with your accountant.Just my 2 cents.