The part of the article that alarmed me the most was this: "the money he offered me wasn't even enough to buy a decent tombstone for my daughter." this was said by an 81-year-old woman named Mattie Qualie, whose daughter, Lorraine Woods, age 58, died in 1998 from an alleged long exposure to molds.

Also, I don't want any equity market exposure.

@James Leake the buildings, and exposure to liability, that you are talking about are a totally different situation than SFR and small multi-unit apartments.

In order to hold water, it should look and operate as a real property management company:have adequate resources to manage propertiesbe formally engaged by property owners: contracts, conditions etc.be financially profitableactually channel all documentation and management activities thru the company and not the ownersmaintain professional bookkeepingprovide regular reporting to ownersissue annual 1099s to ownersmake its services available to the general public (not required, but highly recommended)etc.There're also disadvantages such as exposure to self-employment tax, need for a strict money separation and the expense/hassle of a separate LLC and a separate tax return (again, not required but highly recommended.)In other words, if you do it - invest the time and effort to run it clean and professional.PS.

When an IRA has exposure to UBTI, it will pay UBIT.UDFI stands for Unrelated Debt-Financed Income, and is a subset of UBTI. 

If they keep paying great if they were to default I am still protectedWith performing notes you want to run an analysis if they go non performing and you have to foreclose what is your exposure / projected returns as well.

., provides a higher level of exposure to a rehab that is very beneficial.To the question you posed, “What is the best use of your time at this part of the cycle, and how will it set you up for opportunity down the road..?”

As many of the above posts say, self management is certainly feasible, however you’re paying for your time and definitely exposure of the property.

Hi Robert,I am not totally sure what you are looking for by your brief post but assuming you are trying to market properties that you have for sale, you can post any properties that you own that are FSBO (for sale by owner) on Zillow and that is pretty good exposure.  

Your total vacancy risk exposure is mitigated by the average of 30 units where you have winners and losers.