Residents will assume a personal ownership of their unit and have their own opinions, schedules, cleanliness standards and ideal ease of use of the space they rent each month.

Have a second full bath, even though it was in the basement, came in handy more than once.Here's the mistakes I made1) I included utilities for ease of payment.

You're never fully ready, thats why buying an owner occupant 1-4 unit property is a great way to start which eases you into the game.

However, then your analysis is only as good as they are.A good contractor that you can trust should put you at ease because their bid will be fairly accurate.

This technology is in its infancy for use in real estate but I think it will really take off due to the security of the transactions and ease of investing.

To recap: Be extremely cautious with flat fee MLS sites that only refer business to other agents.Bonus PointsYou should also consider the ease of use of the flat fee MLS listing provider, for example, can you complete everything online?

At the end of the day, going back to first principles, we all should run our rentals for the convivence of our tenants, not our own personal ease. 

House hacking is a great strategy to slowly ease yourself into real estate investing / property management by living on the property.

I did research this topic and was inclined more on software-based (mainly due to price) but would like to get real-life opinion of BP community.The main pros i see having an on-prem property manager are:1) Ease of rent collection and managing tenants2) Auto schedule of any maintenance and follow-upsThe con i see is the monthly payment (8-10% to property manager vs <$90/unit using software)The key points I am trying to find are:1) Does the above pros on having on-prem property manager same with software-based?

They will be a great resource, and a good agent will help ease your nerves too.