,While no investment is completely passive, proper real estate investing should be relatively boring.You asked about the process and major considerations.

Do they have the proper insurance and licenses?

If your exchange is not done properly or your funds are not safe you are going to kick yourself for trying to save $500. 

In other words, you would have already invested thousands prior to the auction just to research the properties and their titles.What is your recommendation because without doing a proper title search (which sometimes takes weeks and passes the auction date), how would you know if what you're buying is a good investment?

Overall, for every type of property....I would say that keeping up with proper maintenance is what most people neglect.

This will get you the name on the dog on record designating that specific animal as their ESA.Good idea -- AND ask for additional rent/deposit, unless there is some legislation forbidding it for a properly registered service animal.My humble opinion, all this "emotional support" stuff is simply BS so they can take their precious animals everywhere they go and not have pay extra.

So excited we found tenants, we took our realtors word for it and didn’t properly vet our new tenants.

You must give proper notice before each showing, you must give the renters the opportunity to buy the house first, and the new owner will have to honor their lease if they intend to stay.

Take ownership of your mistake and learn to do the proper due diligence recommended above😊

I'm weighted towards RE but I have been buying in the public markets recently (stocks, index funds, bonds, REITs, Master Limited Partnerships, Business Development Companies).