I have my eye on a 4 plex I'd like to buy, renovate, rent, and hold.

Just make sure the builder’s risk policy is in place while the property is vacant and under construction to protect your investment.

Imagine you bought a property for $2M.The land (excluding any structures) is valued at $400K.Since land is not depreciable in the eyes of the IRS, we subtract the land value from your purchase price to get your depreciable basis.Your depreciable basis is simply where a cost seg engineer starts from when allocating your eligible assets into either 5, 7, or 15 year property.In the scenario above, your starting basis would be $1.6M since your basis = your purchase price - the land value.Having an accurate land value is essential to getting your depreciation/bonus depreciation calculations right.This is the starting point for any cost seg study that you do.

A well written management contract should clearly spell out what is expected of both the PMC and the owner, to PROTECT both and avoid misunderstandings.

Instead of increasing rent, I would look at having the security deposit increased to protect against wear and tear.

Also, @Joshua Stanton, how do you protect yourself/assets if you can not deed the property into an LLC? 

Keep an eye on your debt-to-income ratio and overall leverage to avoid overextending.

To protect yourselves, ask the sellers for written documentation confirming that the tenant is back-paying.

Depending on what type of relationship you have with your lender you can have them disapprove the loan to protect your EMD. 3.

Using Airbnb isn't going overboard =) It really comes down to how much you need the income, and hence how important it is you get eyes on your listing so you actually get bookings.