It takes away from your profit potiential for an investment and as far as I know you can not debduct the cost in your taxes.

. :) and would appreciate some advice regarding historical performance of the rental in terms of good metrics (cap rate, cash on cash, IRR et cetera, before and after tax).

After looking at softwares and excel based on your recommendations, I decided to take on the challenge to create my own excel sheet that covers Income Statement, Schedule C, Estimated Taxes based on the current tax rates.

Look into tax sales and liens.

You will need to know any taxes and insurance cost along with any management fees, utilities or lawn care you have to pay while owning, along with taking repairs and vacancies into account.

The holding fees would be Taxes , water , lights , swear & insurance .

This allows me to do a 1031 exchange and get into newer properties with better tax advantages (once I have used up most of the depreciation from the previous rental), and it allows me to never deal with deferred maintenance issues that increase my cost of ownership.

Make sure you know the numbers (taxes, rents, insurance etc.), don't just rely on the selling agents numbers they have on the ad. 

Find out where the tax bill is being mailed and send a letter.

Here's a few blog posts to get you started...An Introduction to Note InvestingElements of NPN Investment EvaluationEvaluating NPN Exit StrategiesDue Diligence for Notes - Tax and TitleDoing the Math on Mortgage Notes