Often he has difficulty collecting the tenants share of the rent.

I haven't seen much said about them but I'm satisfied with what I've experienced.. they've made me money and I collect rent every month.   

We are considering taking a 2-5 year risk of owning the home to collect on appreciation since prices are stagnant right now, and pray fire doesn’t take it.

The host can exert too much time to collect or they can choose to not collect and pay the expense.  

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Collect properties instead of money.

You threaten em with whatever, collections or small claims court, whatever. 

My guess is they have low level of book keeping sophistication. 

I lived for free for a couple years, while collecting rent checks. 

The PM will also fix things when needed, using local handymen or contractors, and collect the rent for you.