Property is in Granite City, tenant lost his job, and has stopped responding to texts and emails. 

I am not sure what type of real estate investing you're considering, but it sounds like, with your family and busy job, you won't have a lot of time to be hands-on or personally involved. 

In our 'day job' business of remodeling we have stayed just a partnership with an LLC.

Hi Anderson, Nice to meet you. 

@Candy Kimbro Congrats on your STR property, nice cash flow for sure.

I feel like it would be great to trust a property management company on all of this, but it would be hard not to step in if you could do a better job at screening bad tenants (eg screening HUGE future problems).I initially managed properties myself, but now I delegate that responsibility to my business partner, personal assistant, or a property manager at my brokerage.Most PMs I know will send you an applicant for final approval and you can get on the phone with them and ask them questions

I have run them before but not my day job.

Maybe I'm being too nice but I dont want to evict her unless I can prove she is smoking weed or one of her guests are.

By snagging a house in a nice neighborhood, you will likely command a higher rent for your ADU. 

. #2 won't take long at all (less than 2 hours total) and will set you up nicely for next year!