Brian:Security deposit laws vary widely by state and municipality. 

None of these had an early payment penalty.The next quesitons are, how long until you can refi after your aquisition of the property, and will they refi for an investment property held under an LLC, and again, answers varied widely.

I've built a 56" wide closet in the MBR of a rental.

The DC area has a HUGELY wide array of price points. 

You have two options there, buy a pre-hung double door (solid - no glass) set and install or frame in the opening to a standard 32" or 26" wide door providing more wall space in the bedroom as well as the room outside the bedroom!

The only drawback I see is that you’re so close to union, so doing comps, even going with a mile radius I think is too wide, because every block that goes farther away from union will have a significant price difference.

I recently moved back to Medford in 2013 after the military and have done a wide variety of investing, just not real estate.

You would not doubt stay involved for the comfort level your friend has with you but there are a wide variety of nuances with any commercial lease that would dictate the need for someone who specializes in the product type.

Our lawyer suggested grouping them by size so as to not have properties if disparate sizes in the same LLC.

If you're willing to put some work in or willing to go further out from downtown, you can occasionally find something for under $300k.What's great about Colorado Springs -- say, versus Denver -- is that the laws surrounding Airbnb and short-term rentals are wide-open, so you could do an Airbnb in one of the other units.