Then between those expenses, our mortgage, and daycare for 2 children, we save for our family vacations but our real estate savings had taken a back seat after baby 2.  

Secondly, locking your money into the property means not having access for major expenses, or when other things in life happen - babies, sick persons, etc.

Of course me just a baby in the game i can"t handle that but maybe you can email or inbox if you want the details..

We started in the summer of 2011 with our first rental property (traditional financing), the second rental Feb 2012 (hard money), but we've slowed things down quite a bit since my wife's pregnancy and the birth of our beautiful baby girl, Aria, in late 2012. 

What that would mean in your shoes is you might have to baby sit him a bit and be on top of a few things he probably should be.  

How many landlords have gone through this process to have judges throw out various charges in an attempt to be "fair" or to "split the baby".

We both work full time and have a newborn-- we don't want the tenants to KNOW that we're the owners ;-) I was hoping that the property management company could shoulder the maintence needs for the units and that the "50% rule" would cover the costs to pay their maintence workers etc.

Well, if they have the income and everything checks out, I'd go for it.From my 14 units, 4 of them are occupied by different siblings and they help each other out. 3 of them are next to each other (2 duplexes) and 1 of them baby sits the others' children.So far it's working out nicely.

I am baby stepping very very slowly.

My goal is to have it rented hopefully within the next 2-3 weeks, especially since my wife is due to have our first baby in less than 5 wee