@Joel Oh @Karen Chow - To make things even more confusing, there is a way to group certain activities so you don't have to technically materially participate in every rental. 

Technically it can be up to 49% commercial.

Marie P. knows more about the technical side of RE than I could probably learn in 3 lifetimes.

So, its good to manage things yourself if you are able to get deeply involved in those technical issues, have a partner with those skills, or if you were a bigger operation have a project manager of some kind. 4.

Active monitoring, various security protocols in place, active IT staffing etc.. 

In the end, technically they did everything they said they were going to do, but not in the way they said they would do it.

Me: "Well technically you do, it's just that HUD pays a portion for you.

You might be asking the wrong questions at Fidelity (not sure if they do or do not allow this), but you aren't technically investing directly in real estate, you are investing in private equity partnerships that are investing in real estate.They might not want you buying direct interests in real estate, but are okay with private equity investments.

He is technically your employee while working for you.....do you have Workers Comp?

Good stuff - you are pretty spot on - technically people max out under conventional loans at 10 - but oftentimes its with fewer properties as people run into hurdles before hitting 10, some of which you mention - wanting to diversify strategies, multifamilies, needing LLCs etc.I think you are on the right track for DSCR Loans - I always say that DSCR is really perfect for people in the 5-50 property range - typically conventional is the best fit with your first few, and then when ready to make the "jump" to scaling bigger and faster - DSCR is the best bet.