The latter seems to provide a middle ground that could enable professional maintenance oversight while allowing me to retain some control, mainly through tenant communication and management portals like RentRedi.

Some investors do not feel comfortable to not have control and want to own directly so DST's not a good fit.

Can anyone advise on an auto pay platform for commercial tenants where the landlord has control of making changes. 

Controlled sharing of information is also a reality.

If you own a house with someone that if you were to pass away you would want them to own the house 100% without argument, use joint tenancy.If you want to control where your percent ownership goes upon your passing use tenants in common.

Lots of risk that you can't control and it is taxed as Ordinary Income plus the IRS will see you as self employed so you will pay all of the Social Security tax and perhaps a 2.5% extra tax if you make over $250k. 

Take control of your life.

The skill is to qualify them by taking control of the conversation in a way they dont realize your doing it..

Sometimes, it is that little extra that gets you over the hump to acquire/control a greater asset than you would have without withdrawing those funds.Take a moment and think about all those numbers that have been thrown around.

Small towns have more limited options on house availability, and if you land in a town with a single powerhouse buyer you can find yourself picking up the leftovers. one of the big benifits is that same ability to control the market, I get sellers who call direct knowing i have a house in their area.