Annual property tax on it if you are a resident (and its your primary house) is $960.

So if you want to increase your equity in the market overall by owning more units (ones where you can increase rents annually), I'd consider buying more if you even have the chance to.

I don't think maintenance would be a significant factor.

It's so easy to send messages to tenants, collect rent, and handle maintenance requests.

He has concerns  about the maintenance, property taxes etc,  so maybe another option would be for me  to buy it and rent it  to him. 

McElhannon: Wouldn't all the other 17 years of expenses (taxes, maintenance, fees, etc)  also be deducted from the price and not just depreciation? 

@Shaun Hunt believe what you really want to do is start a "Master LLC" that can function as a PMC.You would then sign management agreements between Master/PMC & property LLC's and have all income & expenses run through Master/PMC LLC, and only have to "settle up" annually with the property LLC(s).Check with a qualified tax professional.

You can even gift back her rent to her with your annual gifting limits.

Instead of, "I want to be financially free," you will say, "I want to earn $100,000 annually from my real estate investments."

Assuming you just manage your own properties, not other people's properties, you can use Buildium for management tasks (keeping track of maintenance, store documents, communication, etc.,) and use QuickBooks for everything related to accounting/financials.