It is rural and 30 minutes outside of a major city, however, it does have a 20x30 shop that a tenant under the right circumstances might find desirable.

Since he's a one person shop (along with a super), he refinanced his 3 million dollar property and the bank required him to hire a property management company. 

Shopping around is always highly recommended. 

I have buildings where the tenants pay for town trash bags and buildings where tenants pay a trash service.

Go shop the office.Don't invest with amateur GPs. 

A young guy I know bought a cute vintage camper, sprayed it black, cut a window in the side and built it out as a mobile coffee shop, which is now parked outside of events and staffed with college girls.

In the spirit of "I've finally resigned myself to the fact that AppFolio has me by the balls and I'm trying to do everything that we can directly in AppFolio" I'm embarking on a journey to set up inventory management in our shop storage racks and managed in AppFolio.

However, whatever route you go make sure you hire an independent agent rather than captive so they can shop the entire market for you! 

I see this most often, when people go shopping on the national websites chasing rates. 

Main thing for you is: - Have both you and your buddy talk to the same lender and get pre-approved to understand down payment options and what your combined budget would be- Decide how you want title held (joint tenancy or tenants in common) - do a google search on this to see which option is best for you guys- START SHOPPING!