Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Even more importantly, is is positioned to be the top sector for the next 10+ years, thanks to the retiring baby boomer population and the lack of adequate new facility development.  

Be sure to explore all around the forums as well as many of the FREE tools that Bigger Pockets provides.I am on the lending side of things and am always happy to hop on a call to discuss loan options that are out there, even if not offered by my resources.

By the end, we barely broke even, and the friendship?

The properties have appreciated by about 60K per unit, but my cash flow is roughly break-even after mortgages and expenses.I want to continue growing and learning more.

It sounds like you’ve been doing some serious groundwork with all the reading and research, which is such a strong start to your journey toward FI and retiring by 55.It’s awesome that you’re exploring real estate as an option, even if you’re not completely sold on being a landlord yet.

You could do General Contracting where you'd need knowledge of all trades or manage a team of one single trade. 

In one case, we had contingency, and we weren't even the top offer, although very close.

So what you'll want to pay attention to is the total upfront costs and how that impacts your interest rate - I'd encourage you if your lender hasn't already to do a break-even calculation to determine based on your hold and strategy how much costs yield you a positive ROI. 

Additionally it seems that even if the event is declared a Federal Diasater, FEMA would offer little if any assistance for Earth quake events.