Roofs, siding and a large deck needing repairs on the bigger rental.

Austin: I have not even thought of looking at the crime rate, but I agree that could create relatively large issues.

Of course there are people with other resources, high income earners that save a large % of income, someone selling a business or receiving inheritance.  

Then ask him/her to go in as a limited partner to buy a massively large property.

I have a few friends out here in Oregon who have large patches of land normally 2-5 acres I'm not sure if it's high or not, not my ball game but they are getting roughly 10% of profit but bear in mind that's water rights which in Oregon you must have for large scale grow.

If you don't panic but work through difficulties and overcome obstacles, you reduce your risk.I don't know how to quantify it on a scale because every deal and every investor is unique.

Keep in mind many mom and pop landlords are very hands on.. and have to collect rent in person.. and as stated above it all depends on your location and tenant base.. like west coast tenants by and large you could automate them.. lower end C D tenants no way.

We're keeping LTV low, taking more term on our debt than we anticipate needing, and have a plan that focuses on bringing the old leases more in line with the current average rates.We also run Downside scenarios to see what the numbers look like if we're wrong about room to increase or (worse) the market changes and results in vacancy going up and rates going down.Those are not pretty of course, but a large part of winning is being able to stay in the game.

And on a bigger scale, I actually did a private loan (I was the borrower) of about 1/2 million with zero collateral (and that was when I was much smaller in scale, so I'm surprised she did it)But since bad things can happen to good people, most lenders want something tangible to back it up. 

Next step is to really scale it more to keep growing.