@Samuel Hailai I would be glad to give you a realtime tutorial of how to analyze some things.

If you can provide insight into any of this I would be grateful, I have read GnuCash help / tutorial, and did some searching online, I have not found the necessary information to understand this.

i have quickbooks for desktop and havent dug into it much. is there any good teaching materials or tutorials out there for using it?

Meanwhile here are a few tips:Here is a Guide to Getting the Most Out of BiggerPockets: (They are also above in the forum, but are a great way to get started) http://www.biggerpockets.com/rei/biggerpockets-com-tutorial/How to Effectively Use the BiggerPockets Real Estate Social Network: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/effectively-using-the-biggerpockets-real-estate-social-network-to-build-your-business/Here is a great feature to BiggerPockets: The keyword alert system:http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2012/12/19/keyword-alert-system/I look forward to reading your success stories in the future!

Hoping to find something that isn't a free-dinner-informercial but truly a tutorial in basics.

Plenty of tutorials online for them. 

His tutorials are pretty easy to follow.

I've written a complete tutorial on setting that up in Podio/Globiflow

I'm surprised both booking sites do not have their own useful tutorials guiding owners from start to finish.

They have tons of online tutorials showing how to do every step.