For a real comparison you would want to include the management percentage on this property if the other comp is professionally managed.I get that you are presenting in broad strokes and in good faith.

Until you know your PM well enough that you can have complete faith in them, you can ask for them to Face Time with you as they walk through the property and point out everything that they are recommending be done. 10 or 15 years ago it would have been a lot hard to invest OOS but with today's technology and information that is available to you, it's not so hard.

Their cabinets are real wood, but I am hesitant to put faith into a mass production company. 

Any legit cash buyer that knows how to do this business knows that an EMD/Good Faith Deposit is mandatory.

I'm proud of you for taking that leap of faith and just doing it.

No matter how trivial the repair was, I took care of it right away to show good faith, because I knew the tenant was testing my promise to them. 

The moral of the story is, you need to take the initial leap of faith.

When you sayI have folks call me all the time wanting these nested complex LLC arrangements, but when I look at their past business history they can't even maintain one simple LLCDo you mean that you don't have faith that these clients can follow the rules of these nested LLC to properly utilize it or do you mean that these nested LLCs simply do not work?

Don't put much faith in your friends numbers unless he is willing to show you the detail

Aside from purchasing my own home, I never had the opportunity, time or money to actually put what I learned into practice.I will be retiring from my workaday public sector job in 2020, and I have all intentions of finally stepping out on faith and getting into the real estate arena.