Perhaps I'm an old out of touch birdie, but if I made $292,000 a MONTH doing land contracts, I would focus all of my time and energy on that and adding to it.

Remember that the leveraged purchases are not going to add significant cash flow immediately and borrowing against existing properties will also reduce their cash flow.

Like anything it has to stay balanced but small gestures go a long way in reducing turnover and mitigating many "would be" issues. 

More and more investors are looking to assume low-interest loans rather than deal with reduced cashflow thanks to today's interest rates. 

Who gets to decide if a repair that appears to be needed is real or fictious, created to reduce the net available to the lender? 

As for your neighbors, they could have exemptions like Homestead, widow, military disability and many others that can reduce the amount of taxes.

Although this is a long term investment and not in the main stream, it has added a certain level of comfort knowing the above potential investment risks are to a degree reduced.

My first question is do I pick a good, better, best system that costs from less to more $$ and do I justify the more expensive energy efficient system to grab a little higher rents since tenants will save money.

In addition lower rents will decrease the value of a property, not necessarily its appraised value, because no buyer will desire to pay retail for properties with reduced cash flow.

David A cost segregation study can be beneficial for properties under $400k by accelerating depreciation to reduce taxable income.