Just trying to gauge whether your bookkeeper is overcharging, especially if you are splitting duties.I would be careful with real estate-specific software.

The only thing that I really care about is room on the deal.

And all properties need to be managed and supervised numerous times per year; giving residents the idea that no one is watching and/or no one cares will be a sure recipe for disaster. 

Who cares what the property taxes are?

I’m sourcing carefully and trying to approach it methodically, especially with the added layer of investing out of state.It’s good to hear advice from someone with experience.

There are a couple of things that come to mind, if a payment is missed the lender cares, if the servicer goes out of business or misses a substitution of trustee, the lender cares, if the borrower goes to the lender to try to get removed from the loan (usually to buy another house) the lender cares, if the property gets caught up in a bankruptcy or divorce, the court cares and that means the lender gets involved.

It is clearly possible to do well here, but as expats I believe you need to be extremely careful in entering the market.

We have never collected that and it is not a significant cost.Also be very careful changing criteria mid stream, I would only change it between vacancies. 

I think that could be dangerous if people are not careful in their evaluation. 

It is a perfectly good fridge, tenants don't care.