Land Use Codes and Building FeasibilityExample 1: Property Land Use CodesActivity Code: 4000 (Social, institutional, or infrastructure-related)Function Code: 1000 (Residence or accommodation)Ownership Code: 4200 (State government)Example: Regrid Property Example 1Example 2: Zoning DetailsZoning Code: T3Zoning Description: Sub Urban ZoneZoning Type: ResidentialZoning Subtype: Single FamilyOwnership Code: 1500 (Businesses and commercial entities)Example: Regrid Property Example 2Based on these land use and zoning codes, can I build a house on either of these parcels?

Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

SOLD comps vs ACTIVE is very important.

I think the first question is do you want to be an active investor or a passive investor? 

I do try and tweak pricing just so it sees that there is active updates on the listing sites.

Quote from @Gregory Wilson: A few things there, Brendan.First, an LLC with you as a member and your (wife, son, pal, etc.) partner as a 1% member will file a Form 1065 which is about one tenth as likely to be audited by the IRS as a Form 1040 with a Schedule E rental activity (which I presume you will attempt to show is an active business).Second, you want an LLC because when your local Alabama handyman drives his girlfriend's uninsured truck into a van load of U of A medical school interns on I-22 when he goes  to get some shingles for your roof, on your business, you don't lose everything you have or ever will have to an uninsured claim. 

Deposits will not be returned (full or partial) until all tenants move out.If Tenant A didn’t come to you to get part of the deposit back they may have gone to tenant B, but they most likely walked away from it and I feel it is between tenant A and B to sort it out.Personally I would return it to tenant B, the active tenant in the current active contract.

We would like for the investment to be treated as active, of course.

A lot of people are giving you advice without enough context as to what you would like to do other than get a higher than 3% cash on cash return and other than only putting down 20% - 30% as a down payment.Something that is important to know to give proper suggestions is what you want the investment to do for you and how active you want to be in the investment.In general, the more active you are, the higher your return, the less active you are, the lower the return because you pay for others to do that work for you.

People who are really determined to sell their house have undoubtedly posted about it on their social media account.