Try spraying with muriatic acid solution to etch the brick and clear up some (more) of the ivy damage, then power wash with a baking soda solution to neutralize the acid and stop the etching process.

The way the water company and the law are written it puts landlords at a serious disadvantage when it comes to getting the tenants to pay for water usage, especially at a multi unit home.Also worth noting that using a 3rd party sub-metering company to solve the problem is probably not going to be a cheap solution either.

It's that exact lack of education that makes me feel like an unethical jackass doing this- I mean I've "faked it til I made it" in other industries and excelled over time but it feels different when you are dealing with people making major life decisions and who are looking to me as a solution provider.

And if you're living on the property, you'll be able to monitor what goes on.As far as the price you can get when you sell, well that's driven a lot by demand.

There's always a solution, you just need to network/do some homework.

There are people that enjoy working on their properties and are better suited for self managing and should be self managing.I would say to get a manger if you are purely doing it for the cost savings and find additional investments.A part time employee could be a good solution since you know your properties. 

This is a trickier solution however, because you and the seller/your friend will need to discuss, agree, **and document in the contract** things like who pays for repairs to the house, who pays the insurance, who pays the property taxes.

Given a low cost of building, and if done in volume, this could be a viable solution.

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Because they are out of compliance with zoning, it seems that there could be some exposure to city violations, etc.One solution is to incorporate the garden into the 1st floor unit as an apartment with a basement.