After he was successful in being more profitable than his neighbours (one thing he's done well with is driving traffic to his direct booking sites to cut out the host sites that take so much in fees) he started taking on investors that put the 20% down for say a DSCR loan.

To me a letter that the tenant fixes it would only be ok if they had xyz garage door repair specified because that vendor won't cut corners at tenant request.

And cut spending where I can!

Time.Any time a tenant cuts off communication, you should treat them as hostile. 

The one warning that I would provide is that it is death by a thousand cuts getting a property to market.

They will definitely help cut your learning curve dramatically and help point you in the right direction as far as which neighborhoods to target and which ones to stay away from.  

Wall Street thinks there may be, possibly, potentially, feasibly, conceivably… a slightly higher chance for an interest rate cut this year.

The house looked vacant and the lawn looks like it hadn’t been cut in years.

Learn how to budget, cut your expenses, and save.

If its in the city where off street parking is a huge perk and it has a legal curb cut then I would keep the garage in most cases.