Had horrible luck making good money without too much time and labor involved. 

I also wouldn't be involved in day-to-day operations onsite.

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

I assume there’s no realtor involved or they’d be upside down.

Meaning if there are partners involved, are you compensating your self for the time you are spending on management?

And treat this as 1/5th space as a rental.Or down the road, would it be better to have the entire property (home & garage/room) rented out to everyone involved and the property become an investment property. 

If the person managing the synidation does not have a pre-2007/2008 track record, that is not one I would get involved in.

If you want to scale, it likely won't involve you running your own renovations as a GC.

Ensure that the savings from the new loan outweigh the costs of the prepayment penalty and any closing costs involved in the refinance.6.

I won't ever close on another OOS property without walking it first but that involves paying for lots of flights and hotel/rental car costs if flying out there to make an offers but the $1500 to $3000 would be worth the cost to me to save on future headaches.