Also, in many cases you must work off of an approved vendor list which means basic repairs can be more costly since you are limited in who you can select.

Some have been basically a waste of time but I like having our properties everywhere possible. 

It’s a simpler process and ensures that some basic maintenance is taken care of without the complications of refunding deposits.

Definitely best time to do it is while kids are young I agree.

If you brought your spouse and 2 kids with you, and you could argue all of your argue of your time on the trip was looking at real estate, and your personal business and activity circumstance defends being able to immediately deduct it and not treat it as a start up cost... likely 75% of much of the travel costs (airfare, food, etc) would be non-deductible. 

Outside of real estate, I enjoy spending time with my wife and kids, as well as playing golf, collecting comics and sports cards, and binging the next show on Netflix.I am very excited to meet people with common interests, network, learn, and help where I can.

If I had a kid like you in my community, I would be happy to let him/her help me with tasks in exchange for training.Do your parents have good credit?

Which are basically flushable wipes?

Personally, if I were younger and not tied to anything (kids/schools/jobs), I would house hack over and over and over. 

Last year when I had 25 units my accountant asked me to get a bookkeeper because what I was doing was inadequate and just basically not useful to him.