There are some good safeguards in place to discourage frivolous claims.If any on you are in the Houston area, I will be there next week and be happy to meet with you.Arnie

It's hard for me to wrap my head around it, but renters are generally VERY price sensitive.  

SmartMove masks the applicant’s social security number for their privacy, and to relieve the landlord of the responsibility of storing this sensitive information.

A few good lists from folks ready spell out all the TIME a realtor will save you but the main thing is the last thing Michael Noto said, your are paying for someone to safe guard your best interests.

All can work, depending on the severity of the nuisance and sensitivity of the tenant and landlord. 

They are less recession sensitive. 

I was just posting on another board to someone who had 5k savings and wanted to buy 5-12 doors that they better have good reserves to account for repairs and vacancies.It seems like a price sensitive market - so yes, renovating the roof is just the cost of doing business as opposed to a justification for raising rent (new roof!

An alternative to the stock market or bond market, as a tangible asset it's easy to safeguard the real estate.The key is networking with investors who want to own real estate in their retirement plans.

Most getting into real estate including many who have been dealing for awhile have no clue as to what Realtors or agents and brokers do, what they must do, must not do, how they are required to safeguard and conduct transactions or what responsibilities they have.

A sensitivity analysis does help a lot here and there are some key variables that dominate many models; like rents, vacancies, etc.