I got a lawyer at the moment but they don't see to be too great regarding evictions and kind of unsure about the whole situation so will see if George Gibbs can provide some clarification on it.

So @Mike S. is providing the perfect solution for you. 

An LLC when properly formed and administered provides separation and protection of assets that are outside of the LLC from the actions of the LLC.  

When you say they were incompetent can you provide more feedback for novice investors. 

Where to get the most recent and accurate data for things like:Unemployment dataPopulation growthJob diversity and top employers in the areaVacancy rates (eg huduser.org)Property taxes and jnsurance costsI saw bp pro and reventure and a bunch of other websites provide some of this data, but i wonder how accurate and recent it is.

If anyone has done this type of project before and has a detailed/itemized breakdown of project cost (invoice), I would truly appreciate if you can provide me with a copy and any guidance.thanks!

I was thinking if I can talk to my neighbor about sharing the cost (I, the landlord, personally provide labor and my neighbor provide material (e.g. fence pickets)).

But perhaps you would be better served helping a local experienced investor find deals and ask them to show you exactly how they analyze deals, what's good vs bad, how do they finance (debt vs equity) etc etc and understand their business model that has a proven track record by providing value to them.

Even if one has to provide the education to some of the parties as to why a particular creative solution makes a win-win-win for all. 

So actual benefit is hard to nail down until it's actually tested/required to provide protection in the event of a lawsuit.