Then he'd call and tell me to pick up a few bags of mulch, 8 or 10 shrubs to plant and bring my weekwhacker, chainsaw and big ladder.

It plants a seed about passive income. 

Growing the plant has become commoditized, it would seem.

@Michael Plante when you say "south side of St Pete", where exactly are you referring?

In my experience “buying” in the inner city rarely involves the exchange of cash.Regardless of where you rent my concern would be that you have planted a seed in an otherwise good tenants head.

They seem like great markets for buy and hold strategies due to the nearby plants.

@Ryan Cerpa Thanks for the insight, it would be worth looking into what regulations our set on our provider@Michael Plante thanks, that is certainly what we are doing. 

That being said, you could also pick an underdeveloped area of Southeast or Northeast DC and plant your flag.

@Neal Collins I work on Transformers. you know Autobots and deceptcons... jk Not the ones on power poles, I work on the big ones coming out of power plants.

@Harrison CookYour post kindles lots of questions.In the "good old-days" most heating systems were vastly oversized for the building they were heating - energy was relatively cheap, insulation was non-existant to poor ... so it was easier and safer to {drastically} oversize.Today, while energy {in North America}  is still relatively cheap for the moment,  we have a much better understanding of how to make buildings more efficient {though you might not think so looking at the construction industry in the U.S.A. and Canada}  and there are often more cost-effective measures than simply replacing an old, over-sized heating plant with a new, over-sized heating plant.You really need to - or at lease should -  perform a heat load analysis to properly size your heating system, a component of which, is determining the rate of heat loss of the building envelope.