Setting clear goals is an excellent way to kick-start your journey, it's important to stay informed and adaptable.

I mean if we have super excellent credit, reserves and a 20% down payment but the DTI won't look good until the primary is sold will a lender even look at us? 

For investing principles and deal analysis, The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner is excellent, it covers cash flow, evaluating deals, and basic financing strategies.

I’ve been working on a simple underwriting tool for small investors who don’t want to spend an hour in Excel every time they look at a property.Here’s how it works:Drop in the basics (price, rent, expenses, loan terms)In 30 seconds, it spits out NOI, Cap Rate, DSCR, Cash-on-Cash, and a simple traffic-light recommendation (Green / Yellow / Red)You get a clean one-page summary you can actually use to make a quick “go/no-go” callI’m testing it out with real investors now.

Excellent realtor who also manages rentals here.

Are these actually any improvement over a well formulated Excel spreadsheet? 

I see these as excellent opportunities to start my portfolio of properties. 

I can see a scenario where we slide into an AI-bubble (stock market) triggered recession, see unemployment go up, home prices go sideways for a couple years, mortage rates go down to around 5%, inflation keeps driving wages up and you take it all together - takes the edge off affordability.Milwaukee is seeing yet another year at a little over 7% appreciation - in a couple years we will have caught up to the national average.Your comment "House prices don't "have to" do anything, People are just not to sell their house, why would they?

QBO has everything you need to run a business, including excellent reporting features and integration with other software.

You will likely need to use 2 seperate excel models and use a metric that is easily comparable(relative cash flow, IRR, net cost).Traditional Buy and Hold: Typically requires 20-25% down, and will come with a slightly higher interest rate .75-1.5% over prime.