Obviously I'm looking for a mid-century modern which seem to price in at least $525k so not sure I'd get even close to the ROI I get in Big Bear- but thought it would be nice to have a home in a different place so I'm not "All the eggs in one basket" (And who doesn't want to own a Wexler long term?!) 

People that have all their eggs in 1 basket get crushed.

That being said, I think if you would rather take the low hanging fruit and just speak to people who want to sell regardless, script is good!

There is a art to making money and a art to enjoying the fruits of it

Allowing it to operate in 'island mode' in the event of power outages can really be amazing- your residents could have a place to charge phones/computers etc. in the event of an extended outage.And if you have enough acreage, why not plant a few apple trees or other fruit trees that will flourish in your specific climate(Cleveland?)

I do not think their will be much fruitful info from them submitting and to have both of them submit would cost each tenant about $50 and I try not have them incur that much of a cost.

I don't think depreciation for rental real estate  is either a "free gift from the IRS" nor an oddity of our tax code.a) if I owned a fruit stand, bought watermelons at wholesale and sold them for retail, of course I only pay tax on the net profit after subtracting my costs (including the cost of wholesale watermelons)b) if I bought a dump truck and back-hoe tractor and did excavation work for a living, the code doesn't let me "expense" $100k of heavy equipment purchase in the first year.....I have to "depreciate" it over 7 years.

So it is kinda a Catch 22 there.If you want to invest into cash flow assets but cannot do it on your own then you may want to also consider investing into syndicate or Tenant in Common Investment as they would let you participate in multifamily investments without the risk of putting all your eggs into one basket (so to speak) but these investment structures have their own inherent risks so conduct your research on these investment structures.

And we have 25+ fruit trees and 2.5Ac of good land with irrigation in place if we ever need to plant a garden.

I always suggest to take the offer in the informal and forego the formal hearing as the formal hearing usually is not fruitful in The Austin area