Unless you only want one or two properties to have a little side income coming in, you need to have a healthy market for your units. 

If anyone has any information on where we can do some research to find out which neighborhoods are "hot" or moving pretty quickly, we would really appreciate any advice!

Just to be on the safe side, I would suggest you consult legal counsel to get a definitive answer regarding this, but if you'd like to read the civil code pertaining to security deposits you can do so by following the link below:http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_disp...Hope this helps and good luck!

On a side note, I actually make MORE money when I have turn over...

While most Net Zero buildings are energy efficient, perhaps even highly so in comparison to minimum building code requirements, there is nothing requiring them to anywhere new the efficiency level of a Passivhaus   .... this is why you will see odd things like warehouses with large rooftop solar installations being able to claim Net Zero.On the other hand, Passivhaus sets three metrics which a building must meet to be certified as Passivhaus compliant:  The building must have a heating and cooling demand of not more than 15 kWh/m2 (4,755 BTU/sq ft; 5.017 MJ/sq ft) per year  and a peak heat load of 10 W/m2.Total primary energy consumption (energy for heating, hot water and electricity) must not be more than 120 kWh/m2 (38,040 BTU/sq ft; 40.13 MJ/sq ft) per yearThe building must not leak more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour (n50 ≤ 0.6 / hour) at 50 Pa (0.0073 psi) as tested by a blower door.Ironically, the research and pilot projects which fuelled what eventually became the Passivhaus standard was carried out in Saskatchewan as a National Research Council (NRC) project in the 1970s (the house is still in use today) and a similar project (Minnesota?)

Just make the terms reasonable, going back to the potential things-going-sour bit, a judge will not side with you if the terms include a 2,000% interest rate :-).On a separate BiggerPockets podcast, I vaguely recall a mortgage officer from Texas saying private investors can run up to 5 mortgages nationally without any license.Hope this helps.

We have some similarity in the sense of how you started out, on the contractor side.

I have 3 multi family properties on the west side of Cleveland in Lakewood Ohio and am planning on looking for a larger commercial property.

Being a real estate agent has been a side business for me as I have a full time career. 

You're welcome to see me as the enemy if you want, but I'm on the buyer side.