George,This is excellent advice.  

Be sure to give Bill a vote for his excellent advice, and good luck in your investing.

In today's market it's impossible to get a negative amortizing loan and you're still able to cash flow day 1 in the Bay Area and buy excellently located properties with great fundamentals.

I think that providing excellent service to your tenants is one of the best things you can do for your owners.  

@Stephen Nicholson - excellent advice hereBe a disciplined investor by sticking to the numbers that make financial sense for your target level of profitability and always maintain walk away power in any deal.Sometimes these deals will comeback to you but chances are they won't as the seller has an unrealistic view of his asset's worth, is no hurry to sell and someone with less experience than you will come along and pay him over market price at some point.Rick

You asked some good questions and @Roy N.has provided excellent answers from a Canadian perspective.  

Doing is the best learning method - however, reading and listening to information is an excellent way to get a handle on the overwhelming amount of information.

Find someone with a CCIM designation, and you should be in excellent hands.

ERENTPAYMENT - Massive failureSome payments made between7:31:00 PM (PST) 10/3/17 -7:01:33 PM (PST) 10/12/2017. have not been distributed to landlordsBE ADVISED CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT AND ALL PROPERTIES FOR PAYMENTS PROCESSED OCTOBER 2017A portion of the letter sent to landlords using Erentpayment below-"Valued eRentPayment.com customers and affiliates,Convenience and excellent customer service have been at the core of eRentPayment since I founded it thirteen years ago.

Excellent advice @Bettina F.