I listened to the book during my drive and it really breaks everything down into numbers and strips out the emotion and hope, which I think you'll need in order to actually be that one of 50...For me, personally, the hardest part is the passive-ness.

That's not to say I won't move more into RE as I gain knowledge and experience, and in the process achieve diversification, but emotional stability is my main concern.  

Larry,That is where we are at. the deeper you get the more questions there are.  

One suggestion I'll make, however, is not to let emotions guide your decisions, especially when you're living in a unit that will eventually become a rental or a flip--unless you make the decision consciously and are willing to, for example, spend an extra $1000 to tile an apartment bathtub surround because you really want to have tile while you live there, knowing that you won't recoup your investment as a rental.  

All I can say is take you time leave your emotions at home and remember the one who cares the least wins.

Cheers...Brent,I wouldn't use those words (rip-off merchants).Unlike others that want to critize one side or the other, I'm about getting to the facts and compensating fairly to those who have provided value.I'm here to learn and give back as I can what I learn.I have learned quite a bit from this post that leads me to dig deeper and to decide on the direction I need to go.

@Ben LeybovichI dug a little deeper on this property just for fun and found that the annual gross for the building for at least one year is 57,815.00 making it rent for approximately $400/unit (a bit higher since that probably includes some vacancies). 

Never compromise your standards, though ... no deal is better than a bad one.Finally, for a newbie, I think a down market (think 2009-2012) is the easiest (but scariest) time to start and it may be useful to be self aware that your emotions may lead you astray ... as Buffet recommends, be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy ... easier said than done, but good advice none the less.

I focus a little deeper into the rental criteria. 

There are several other factors that you must consider to be able to analyze this deal:-What is the repair estimate -What is the after repair value of the house-What are your assumptions: maintenance, vacancies, property management, capex, insurance Once you have answers to all of these factors you can look at a deal and have a deeper understanding of the deal.