I hired an IRA-approved valuation company to value that note at that time.

I may hire an attorney, but I may have finally found a law pertaining to this issue.

You can hire someone on Fiverr website and they'll add furniture and personal items to a blank photo for a very reasonable price.

I use google drive and FreshBooks but it's a lot of in my head of who I hired and when they need to be done.

I live near Richmond, VA, but if you have a national bank then I thought I could just have my local branch call the bank manager you used so that s/he can walk my rep through the steps required to make it happen. 

for any number of reasons these students could lose the EM and or it could be stuck and they need to litigate to get it back  .. who is going to hire and attorney to litigate over a 1k EM.. 

Identifying the right market can make a huge difference in the success of this strategy.Curious to hear...are you planning to manage the property yourself, or are you considering hiring someone local? 

I think we develop that alter ego, but new investors just don't have it in the beginning because they don't have enough reps to know the difference between a good deal and a bad deal.

And people hire them instead of us because it looks like they "care" and we don't. 

Hire an experienced real estate agent (20+ years in the biz) to run a market analysis for you.