I am in the Houston area and while I'm not new to real estate in general, I am brand new to investing.

Hi Brand, my accountant has always taken the property value and divided that by 27.5.

I am concerned that he/she is either filing bogus small expenditures OR performing services himself/herself and making profit.

If you own multiple rental properties in the same LLC and, god forbid, something goes wrong with one or a few, the rest of the performing properties are put at risk since they are also owned by the same LLC.

The aforementioned Trainers used me because we actually performed.

She'll quickly learn which properties perform best, how to handle tenants and contractors, and much more.  

I hope that makes sense.That said, you can do research into the company and see if they have a good rep, etc; however, if they don't perform you are out the money.You should really only pay the lender if the deal closes.

I do have stocks that I could liquidate to throw at the principle but they have been performing great lately and I’d rather use those funds down the road as another down payment on a future property.Any advice appreciated Christian

So I am thinking my next move since I don't like how well the mail performed,  is to try SEO.

Furthermore, in our lease we outline that if the tenant fails to perform their maintenance obligations than we may complete their obligations on their behalf and at their expense.