The bookkeeper might not know how to run budgets correctly or set procedures to make things run smoothlyYou get a Real Estate Controller who has been doing nothing but real estate accounting for years and years and you won't need to micro-manage, no need to worry that expenses are coded incorrectly, does not rely on the CPA and in fact knows how to communicate with the CPA efficiently to save you money.

Is there a general trust building procedure or source that aids in showing me what I should look for?

In R-1AA, R-1A, R-1, R-1N and R-2A zoning districts an Accessory Apartment, Accessory Cottage, or Garage Apartment may beallowed as a second dwelling unit on a single-family building site under the following conditions:i) Accessory Apartment.(1) Inside the Traditional City, one Accessory Apartment shall be allowed as a Permitted Use when the building site is at least 1.5 times theminimum lot size for the applicable zoning district.(2) Outside the Traditional City, one Accessory Apartment may be allowed as a Conditional Use in accordance with the regulations andprocedures provided in Chapter 65, Part 2D, when the building site is at last 1.5 times the minimum lot size for the applicable zoningdistrict.ii) Accessory Cottage.(1) Inside the Traditional City, one Accessory Cottage shall be allowed as a Permitted Use when the building site is at least 2.0 times theminimum lot size for the applicable zoning district.(2) Outside the Traditional City in the R-1AA, R-1A, R-1 and R-1N Districts, one Accessory Cottage may be allowed as a Conditional Use inaccordance with the regulations and procedures provided in Chapter 65, Part 2D provided that the building site is at least 2.0 times theminimum lot size for the applicable zoning district.(3) In the R-2A district inside and outside of the Traditional City, Accessory Cottages shall be a permitted use provided that the minimumbuilding site area for an Accessory Cottage shall be the same as that required for a duplex development.

The contracts explicitly state the length of the loan, interest rates, equity share, and procedures in case of a default.

It's important to figure out what your business strategy is, and what your value-add proposition is.I know that folks have been successful in each one of these niches in Philly real estate, just depends on what you are looking to do (in no particular order and just off the top of my head, I'm sure that I'm leaving a bunch out): low-income rentals, luxury rentals, flips, vacant land speculation, new construction, section 8/PHA rentals, wholesaling, wholetailing, bird dogging, turn key sales, property management, construction management, financing expert, zoning expert, title expert, business procedure consulting, hard money lending, seller financing, buying subject-to, syndicating deals, 1031 exchange scout, retail sales, etc.Personally, I've set up a pretty decent rental portfolio over the last few years, that's what made sense for my investing goals and setup. 

We charge a decent cleaning fee and are pretty specific with checkout procedures and setting an expectation, mostly based on respect.

They informed me today that they are not really experienced in dealing with pre-foreclosures procedures such as paying for back payments and taking title of the property and making the payments to the bank until it is sold. 

As far as courts holding county personnel accountable, I don't think there are so many mistakes at the county level, I think people just don't understand the procedures and the county people are not good about communications.

@Amanda Kwong, how long it takes depend on your default procedures and your attorney and the backlog in Jefferson County.1. 

I hear several time that I do not need to be an expert of the transaction and paperwork procedures, but I do need to understand what is happening and when it is happening ( we never go blindfolded for battle, right?!).