You also don't have to pay state tax on income. 

I know for our portal in Buildium owners can log in and run different reports like income statements, profit and loss, general ledger, etc.

Akron is a very blue city and are not very landlord friendly - source of income protections, etc... 

As for the investing, I’ll probably be looking for a 3-4 family rental property to generate a little bit of passive income.   

This is how I see it:Single-Family Homes:Pros:Larger pool of potential tenants (families).Simpler management (one tenant, one lease).Often easier to finance.May appreciate faster in some markets.Cons:Only one income stream.Vacancy hits harder financially.Duplexes:Pros:Two potential income streams.Live in one unit and rent the other (house hacking!)

If they pass all of the checks and have the proper income then they have a shot at moving in.

(I REALLY can’t stand state income taxes.  

If you don't have enough to invest locally can you increase your income and savings to be able to invest in 6 months or a year? 

(Especially a 2-4 unit.)Do they have friends/relatives/co-workers that would rent rooms from them if they bought a property to show more income?

He abandoned trying to scale.Learning from this experience when my partner and I decided we wanted to double our net income, we realized it would take a increase of 2 1/2 time our volume and probably need to triple our deal flow.