It will be hard to judge what's a well planned and functioning REIT if you haven't invested yet. 

There are no washers or dryers on the premises (might be worth adding coin-op washers in the future).Property condition: The garage is in complete disrepair, basically functions as a carport at best right now.

I could move into a property that looks like a good deal (either in SF or the Easy Bay) and secure an FHA for 3.5% down by virtue of living in the property as my primary, rent out additional rooms, and essentially function as the property manager.

Although, these tools are great for managing tasks/schedules, unfortunately these tools do not have any repair estimation or budget tracking functionalities.Smartsheet/AirTable - Provide spreadsheet style platforms with additional functionalities for uploading documents/images, assigning tasks, calendar, images, etc. 

I have a 3% on my personal resi but I still pay an additional 50% every month because I want it paid off in the next few years.... but no question if one is trying to scale a rental business debt comes right along with it.I was at a real estate function a few weeks back and the host had a saying " refi till you die"  I really can't get behind that... and reality is 30% or more of americans homes are paid for.. and if that number was a lot higher we would not have such wild swings when you have a down or flat market.

What a missed opportunity to sell a visual product!  

At that point you have a general partnership and 1065 obligation.If you're doing that, it may be advantageous to take it one step further, form an LLC and write your mother into the operating agreement as the functional equivalent of a limited partner. 

Try the search function, he holds some investors classes and stuff at the local REI group

Some counties web sites are more user friendly than others you may have to look at a tax parcel map and search by the parcel in the search function.  

I have a couple of questions:What is the job and function of a Title Company?