@Bruce Lynn - I love the depth of thought you put into this—these are exactly the kinds of variables that separate top-tier investors from the rest.

I proposed the question if the separation of funds was for asset protection.  

I don't rent furnished and others may be able to point out where this is flawed, but I would consider renting the furniture SEPARATE of the unit because that may allow you to collect a deposit on the furniture.

As soon as a tenant fails to pay rent, you can file a complaint without waiting 30 days or issuing a separate notice (unless your lease requires one).That being said, it could be a waste of time/fees to run to court because tenants in NJ may come even on rent (even after you win the eviction case) and then they won't be evicted: “The tenant shall have three business days after service of the warrant for removal to pay all rent due.”

There's a separate thread on partnerships and the general sentiment is that majority of partnerships will fail.

@Jorge Vazquez we stopped doing signs over 10 years ago.We had a separate phone number on our signs, so were able to track traffic & applications from them.We were getting more & BETTER leads from our online ads then the signs - so an easy choice to stop using them (also time & money savings).

Perhaps we "buy" the house from them for the $328K balance to satisfy the lender and don't need a large down payment and then have a separate contract with them to pay $x per month until we've paid the full $172K amount.

I'm also new to real estate investing and have experienced the same rollercoaster of emotions.

My answer would certainly be highly dependent on his own emotional make up, his desire to relax and travel, his willingness to delegate and outsource, etc.

One workaround could be keeping a separate spreadsheet to track your adjusted tax basis accurately and only using Stessa for operational insights.You could also reach out to a cpa and see if they have a specific recommendation for software to use.