The NNN component is very attractive to me given my lifestyle goals mentioned above.

The radiator components are falling off, the window nets are slashed, and the kitchen cabinets are scratched and chipped.I have a security deposit ($1600) from the tenant, but I’m afraid this will not be enough to cover the damages.

I always thought of these components going hand-in-hand,  but noticed that in most books they are  discussed in completely separate sections.

You fix one thing and it puts additional stresses on other components and they break.

Ensuring that your residents continue to enjoy living at the park is a critical component of success.Regulation - Mobile home parks have unique regulations that need to be understood and adhered to around the sales of homes, seller financing, and other local and state guidelines.

I have friends in the cabin rental business and it's the same thing.Either you run it yourself and make great margins or to go mainly passive you have to hire someone to do all these things with the properties constantly being rented out and most of the cash flow goes bye,bye with increased operational costs.I view these the same as buying any business where you look at the books and it has an owner operator component to it.Example a Subway sandwich place making 100k profit a year gross.

I think the component you are missing is Leverage. 

Those components will help steer you towards your first deal.  

Compared to an IRA, contributions limits are roughly 10x higher, there is no custodial requirement for the 401k, you can take participant loans, you don't need the additional expense and administration of an LLC to have checkbook control, there is a built in-Roth component, a spouse can also participate, there are additional tax benefits, generally greater privacy, and the plans are often quicker to setup and cost less money over time especially compared to most IRA LLCs.

Landlord references are a critical component of tenant screening but should only be a small part of your overall process, especially if you are just getting bits and pieces of cryptic or seemingly unreliable info from those landlords.