Welcome to the community and be ready for a huge amount of information at your finger tips.

Here is my post from back in oct: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/49/topics/1210614-the-f...

Reporting the proceeds you pay to seller on a 1099 sounds reasonable.

I think a better option is to get a job in property management.

SEO is a commitment did your not dedicated to that type of marketing use a basic website.  

I would recommend to read a few books.

It is a very safe play.

I paid for the subscription for a few months and drew my own custom Google maps areas and color coded them red/yellow/green based on a "grade" I felt came from a few metrics like crime/average household income/etcI also really like realtors dot com new maps, if you search for an address and click on the map and then go to the top left and choose the Value slider it will give you a nice color coded map of which areas of a neighborhood are higher valued.

Talk to the exterminator and let them know there is a problem. 

Applying a value add strategies can get you to much much more equity rather quickly.