I love connecting with other investors who have been there and done it before.I'd suggest connection with @John Warren and maybe attending his meetup event that is in the Western Suburbs of Chicago.

Aloha BP ohana,I currently reside in a small town in western Oregon near Newberg, OR.

Alec GrangerNew Western Acquisitions Newwestern.com

However they only play in the western part of the state.

This reduces your reliance on your tenants seeing and forwarding or forgetting the bill to you, and what could be a poorly-run Accounts Receivable department, if they are in fact not sending bills out in a timely fashion each month/period.Fourth, if your or your husband's names are on the bills (and you don't intend to live in these properties), you could set up either temporary forwarding or file a change-of-address with USPS for your family name.

Thank God we did it the old-fashioned way.

Holding vendors accountable through instalment paying but also paying in a timely fashion is a fair way to do things

(That’s so old fashioned.) 

Checkout Homestyler which is a free web app for creating basic floor plan designs.https://www.homestyler.com/floorplan/I recently tried MagicPlan Iphone App, but didn't have any luck getting the app to calibrate properly for taking room measurements, so just measured with a good old fashioned measuring tape.

Not only do you get to save money, make money, build equity but you also learn the ins and outs of managing rentals in a relatively low risk fashion.