If your property management company is good and has built an internal maintenance team which has set rates and had strong relationship relationships with licensed contractor which should keep costs in control, you should never need to shop contractors on your own I wouldn't think.So in short, our policy is give us your preferred contractors upfront if you have them, but then we work all tickets to resolution including dispatch, and payment of invoices.This is of course for operational expenses.  

What @Anna Sagatelova said about Cleveland properties is also true in Akron. 90% of the housing stock in the city of Akron was built before 1970 and there are quite a number of really fine A++ older homes especially in west Akron.

Due to item 1, adding an ADU can require years to start achieving any return (once the accumulated cash flow recovers the initial negative position).4) Adding an ADU is a slow process.

The inspections have become so nitpicky over purely cosmetic items there has to be an extra $1-2k per year to keep up with the punch list every 1-2 years.

Geez...if only there was a license that built wealth on its own.  

Should we explore that route, purchase an already built duplex in Peoria or another part of the Midwest? 

If you have a building background, I would work with an architect and build some unique places that are stick built to hold the equity value better.

I also grew up in cupertino when Stevens Creek and Hwy 9 were still gravel and 280 was not yet built :)  I worked for a syndicator in the late 80s and we had projects in the foothills and did the last phase of Lake Wildwood.. 

It can potentially be deductible as an ordinary or rental expense, an itemized deduction or simply non-deductible. 

Having good accountants will be an important item to afford scalability.