Although I am approaching this from a purely business standpoint this is a very sensitive discussion.Real estate investing is the last topic I would address.    1.  

Or their phone battery is dead?

You go and figure out the batteries in the thermostat are dead.  

Agreed with many, that there certainly are some "blessing in disguise" benefits (getting to screen my own tenants); however, from a pure cashflow/effort standpoint, it isn't an ideal scenario since I'll be putting in more effort and sooner just to find another tenant who is paying the same rate. 

I'm guessing it's a story about cost effective college educated labor.... think about being Wells Fargo, and having to pay out SF Bay Area housing expenses in the form of salaries, and then trying to be competitive for (& profit from) $150k midwest mortgage sizes (per mortgage overhead is flat, but revenue/profit is purely based on loan amount). 

My experience has been that lawyers that do title work charge more than pure title companies… so pay attention to who is doing the closing.  

But it seems obvious that most people consider it a pure real estate investment, instead of what it really is.

In the commercial world, lenders know that it's purely business in that the units will be rented out and usually on 1 year leases.

But again, if we are talking pure comparison with all things being equal (normalized) the four bedroom will be better.

 $12,500 per Month in 'Pure Cash Flow' With Todd Baldwin | BiggerPockets Podcast 392  Rent-By-The-Room to Riches with Todd BaldwinHow Renting By The Room Doubled This Investor's Rental Income | Best Deal Ever Show - Frank Furman  (Padsplit)