If you perform the repair personally, you have to be reasonable in charging fair market rate. eg. if it takes 1 hr of your labor for some handyman's work, $20-30/hr is reasonable, even you're probably paid much more in your own line of work.My suggestion is to first fire the PM who obviously wanted to skim some profit by inflating the repair cost while exposing you to lawsuits (remember you're in CA - a blue state and San Jose - a city with rent control).

@Mary Joe Not meaning to be a smart ***, but if you are looking for passive, low return, risk averse, long term investments, what not just invest in a few good income (dividend paying) blue chip mutual funds?

Check out the Tenant Screening at the top highlighted in Blue on this forum,,Rental Criteria is what you go on,, you set that and screen per that. 

Hello allI have a strip mall in Blue Ridge Ga that has about 11 acres behind it.

Its more of a Blue Collar community, although few do the daily commute to Chicago for work.

We are looking to buy a house within walking distance of the blue line and most houses in that area do not have garages.

Click their name and you should get a blue linked name in your post.You can also bring people into the conversation if you are already colleagues with them.

This data only includes the 19 small to mid size cities and towns I am interested having investments in.2016 Multi-Family Sales2 Unit Apartment Buildings in my Farm took a dive last year, would have been a good time to buy a 2 unit building but I opted for a 3 unit with better cash flow.59 (2)unit properties soldRed line is the sale price, Blue line is the list priceThe average sale price for the year was close to $65,000The average Discount from list price averaged $9,000Only 10 of the sold properties were purchased at list price or abovePrice per unit was a whopping average of $28,6543 Unit Apartment buildings in my Farm did a little better on price the building I purchased was the last 3 unit in December in 2016 at a 10% discount from the list price and about 11k below market rate at that time.13 (3)unit Buildings soldRed line is sales and the blue line is discount from list price.The average sale price for the year was close to $83,000The average discount from list price was $9,000Only 1 building was purchased at 5k above list priceThe average price per unit was $27,4872017 Multi-Family Sales2 Unit apartment buildings in my farm this year are not suffering as much of a hit to price this year although the average price has continued to drop but only slightly.62 (2)unit Buildings soldRed line is sales and the blue line is discount from list price.The average sale price so far is $58,000The average discount from list price so far is $7,1417 Buildings have sold above list priceThe average price per unit was $30,0003 Unit apartment buildings 201710 (3)unit Building soldRed line is sales and the blue line is discount from list price.The average sale price so far is $75,000The average discount from list price so far is $8,7231 building has sold at list priceThe average price per unit is $25,175SynopsisAlthough there are some minor fluctuations in the NEPA Multi-family market the next chart shows all Multi-Family sales year over year which shows the relative stability of the market.  

These areas are blue collar type or warzones.

You're trading some nice blue chip property for cash flow, I am assuming?