In a great area but choosing the right tenants is so understated; One bad tenant can potentially ruin your cashflow as it may drive the current good tenants away.  3) Cashflow isn't the only or most important metric to consider, especially if you're 3% down in a growing area. 

The basic "guru" pitch is that by buying training or resources from the guru, an inexperienced, uneducated (in real estate), and unknowledgeable investor lacking sufficient capital can become very successful in a certain area of real estate investing/business.The problem with most of these programs center around the following(1) The program taught doesn't actually work(2) The program does not provide the person purchasing the program with the knowledge, experience or education neccessary to successfully implement the program(3) The program contains very basic information that can be obtained far less expensively by other means(4) The trainers and consultants provided are inexperienced and/or incompetent(5) The program accepts anyone who can pay although many accepted don't have the neccessary personal tools to be successful(6) The program makes false and/or misleading promises(7) The program understates the amount of capital neccessary for success(8) The program understates the amount of time and effort neccessary for success(9) The program overstates the size of the target market(10) the program assumes that because of success in one market it will be successful everywhere all the time.There are legitimate real estate consultants/trainers out there with a track record of success.

The IRS can only go back 3 years typically (unless you have understated income/overstated expenses more than 25%).

Those "projected" rents could be totally whimsical, the proforma could understate expenses, etc, and you're buying the apartment today. 

Repeat the process as you move from base to base.Alternatively the VA house hack of a four plex can not be understated, a very powerful strategy.

I must say that one significantly understated factor of real estate investing is the tedium of closing deals once your get your offer under contract.  

Some states say that when the contract expires, that even the terms expire, and then the M2M contract is simply under state laws.  

If it's a habitability issue, you still usually have at least a few days, if not 10 days, from what I've seen of different state habitability laws.And if it's not a requirement under state habitability laws, normally the landlord can have even a month to take care of something.Then, you might want to print out that law and provide it to the tenant when you talk to them about following your procedures.Then, depending on the above, your next step is to put in writing exactly what the tenant is supposed to do if they need a repair done.  

The seller's Schedule E is a good start since sellers usually don't overstate income nor understate expenses on their tax return.I do want to note that the bottom line on a Schedule E is not "profit", it is taxable income/loss.  

BP is understatedly an awesome website.