also i have found that some of the very small towns can be great for buy and hold as there are often not alot of choices for a tenant to pick from so there is plenty of demand when your unit is vacant.  

Partnering is a very logical choice.  

Building and renting is a longer term gain option which carries more risk and wouldn't be my choice.    

Is a LLC IRA a better choice for me, and what benefits or disadvantages will it be for me?

I offered him two choices (from the recent negotiation learning).

Once "prettiness" dictates the choice of your primary, rather than "potential", we can't help you anymore.Congrats on having such healthy savings.

My guess would be that if the profit spread is $10k or less -- or 10% or less on bigger deals -- that Assignment is the preferred choice.

But you have a choice - self manage or let the PM manage.

Then I wonder what happens to the investor who lost 10 homes.. what happens to him and then he or she gets sued.this has all sorts of very serious repercussions short of just should I let a tenant slide one week because of the largest natural disaster to ever hit the US>> I think it boils down to investors with money and reserves probably will work with folks.. investors who are mortgaged to the hilt this could be something that really hurts them and they will have no choice but to be hard @$$ non caring landlords regardless of cirucumstances.. and then you just have the plane old greedy could give a crap landlords. sorry for your troubles you owe money..

Probably not the first choice for most, but they are based in OH, so at least understand the local landscape.