The legislature deliberately added laws to discourage their use and made violations of the law "tie ins" to the Deceptive Trade Practices Act which allows plaintifs treble damages and mandatory attorneys fees. 

Professional photos, 3D scan, SEO presence and experienced agents that are paid based on your customer service experience is what I'd look for..paying someone for any level of service just doesn't seem like a good investment to me.I would also question the ethics of any brokerage/agent that bad mouth's or publicly makes false statements about another brokerage in direct violation of National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics (low paid, inexperienced agents)  I guess some folks feel a need to tear someone down to build themselves up!

California Association of Realtors Wire Fraud Advisory has some best practices in it that, to the best of my knowledge, should not be state-specific. 

Storing information on External hard drives or USB sticks can also be unsafe..I agree with a lot of what you said Nancy but storing your information on your desktop rather than the "Cloud" is not necessary "safer", it might be a false sense of security..It is important when using Quickbooks online, iCloud or any Cloud type service that the user is following best practices.

I can practically bring in tenants after some quick and basic fixing such as the roof, painting, carpeting and new windows.

The issues that can arise with lack of practice too can lead into trouble.

Specifically relating to 2-4 unit multi-family buildings, is it conventional practice for the owner to simply pay for water, sewer, and trash or is it conventional practice to bill these expenses back to tenants? 

I'm wondering if a mortgage service company is the way to go, or if it would be more practical to handle it ourselves.

Tenants that seem to be difficult or not paying on time, I would issue a Notice to Vacate when it best suited your personal situation to get the unit leased again as soon as practical.  

We don’t really have the option to leave as both our families live here and we’re licensed to practice law in NY and NJ only.