The longer warranty water heaters usually are made with better quality components.

There are plenty of companies who can offer capabilities in each of the process components but I have yet to find the soup to nuts system that handles them all and integrates the information into a usable form.

We also look at deals from other geographies, again on an ad hoc basis...especially if these deals are being brought by smart folks we know or have some existing relationships and the deals have some deep value add component.  

Working with a realtor has it's benefits sure, but it has plenty of detriments as well.

I like real estate as a diversification component to an overall portfolio.

When your at the bottom of the ladder and fighting amongst the other small fry for table scraps it certainly seems detrimental to disclose your outside activities.

In that case, what would be the "normal goods" component of your portfolio?

As I mentioned above, there is limited data available here in which to frame the numbers you did provide (the water/sewer alone could be another $5K/yr) and we know nothing of the economic vacancy, tenant population, asset condition/obsolescence, level of performance or room for improvement.You should be underwriting a property like this to (M)IRR (with a time horizon to your exit) and weight the cash component of the return based upon the nature of the property and its location.   

That is business brokerage and has nothing to do with real estate.Sometimes they might be selling the building with the land and the business and that will include a real estate component.

In general, the ongoing maintenance costs of all these components are more dependent on age than location.