He had shoulder surgery himself, so he wasn't working. ;-) I have properties.

You should hire and pay an accountant so he can take the burden off your shoulder and to provide you advise you on strategies to make your tax bill go down.It looks like he did neither. 

I've thought about doing that.there areas cost of living must be different I'm not exactly comftorable now but I live off of about 700 a month I don't even know how one person would struggle to live off of 35k unless they had a car payment and other debts weight on there shoulders and went rooming in someone's home from a current renter perspective rent is rediculasly expensive which is one of the reasons I look to being a landlord. due to her culture untill we are married she stays with family so she lives for free.

Sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders.

It’s unwise to hire a property manager as a means of moving responsibilities off of your shoulders because you are unknowledgeable.

My wife and I would love to see if somebody would be willing to let us look over their shoulder on a fix n flip project in the northern San Diego Area.

It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders so keep working and saving along with leveraging your money and I'm sure you will be successful!

We are in the process of individually metering the entire complex and will switch to tenants shouldering that burden upon renewals. 

But this is easier said that done, you dont get to rub shoulders with the whales just like that.Whales can deploy 0.05% of their total buying power and make the stock price move up a couple of dollars , similarly they can sell the same and make the stock drop a couple of dollars and wipe out millions of average joe investors cash , they invest small amount but represent the largest subset of the retail investors .Whales can do this because their order size is so big,trade speed is ultra fast and robotic it is chump change to them .They can deploy this strategy while sippin on bacardi on a beach-Read This is very different to the path average joe is currently on and possibly not possible to embark upon because it is a select club ,and joe is not invited!

I am also in a year round vacation area (south Lake Tahoe) though the shoulder season can be on the slower side April/May & October/November.