Make it a gas unit, not wood.That might make it more interesting.

Both flat and percentage base charge usually a 1 month fee to lease out the unit. 

I am considering living in one of the units myself.

I self manage, have a cleaner but I also sometimes turn the unit myself.

I purchased a rental unit and did some private funding in 2016, and I will probably expand this business by doing more deals.

I am new to the world of real estate investing and want to one day own properties and rent units out.

One quick point, you can create sub-virtual accounts for each unit / room by property which I imagine would be helpful if you're renting by the room for your third property.  

Our options are to put the money the stock market, buy a multi-unit property, by an established business, payoff the 3 rentals for cash flow, or get into hard money lending.

Quote from @Gregory Wilson:As for the second, there are only about 20 monetary numbers to be entered in Turbo Tax on a single unit rental property 1065 so it always seems to me that the $3500 would be better spent elsewhere.

I currently have about $50k in cash and am looking to spend no more than $250k on my first property (less depending on the area, number of units, etc.), inclusive of any renovation costs.