It's seamless, makes tracking revenue and expenses very easily, provides me with bank account options for all of my properties as well as virtual credit cards AND a hefty interest rate on savings.

Lastly, they don't get a hit on their taxes until they receive their money, which is a benefit to the seller that is easily over looked. 

I can now easily afford more properties, but am a bit stuck.

I have done my own liens in the past, however if you don't know what you are doing it can easily get messed up and possibly not count as a lien.

You can easily do this on a spreadsheet, and it will take less time to track than finding and learning new software.

I'm glad that you and your family love the city, and you're correct in that you can find 1% deals here easily. 

We've always used chemicals.Bedding can easily be remediated by washing and drying.  

For a 3 bed/1bath home you can easily get $1,300/mo here in Detroit.

You just have to make sure you work with a realtor who can easily plug you in with his system and network of GCs, PMs, lenders, etc. so that you can easily build you real estate team out-of-state.

Also, the additional income being on the books will allow you to more easily qualify for a loan down the line as well as you will have more documented income.