Her lease states that after the first 30 days, she was responsible for dealing with pests (although I think that MO law requires the landlord to keep the building "habitable" http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natur... ). 

Start off with just 1 or 2 or more if you have time and pretty soon you’ll be really fast at determining what properties are worth further evaluation and you will build the habit of researching that market on a consistent basis.

Some habit may change, but largely people still go out, and rent still need to be paid.So ....is REIT a good choice to get in at the moment?

In time I would be interested if this causes a shift in residential habits.

We currently have our first duplex under contract but no LLC set up here's our situation: 4 parties involved:- Individual #1 & 2 are providing capital (cash / line of credit)-  Individual #3 is going to be their for maintenance / bigger projects / inspections on properties before we purchase - he will likely not be putting as much cash in the game but a vital piece as our capital parties don't want to be hands on.- Individual #4 (myself) is a licensed agent helping find properties and handling the management.

I've unfortunately had to turnover a few tenants in RI in similar situations, i.e. bad previous landlord mismanaged and developed bad habits or just got bad tenants to begin with.

Somewhere along the way since I heard about BiggerPockets several months ago and begin reading/listening to BP stuff, I picked up the habit of using 30 years when calculating mortgages on properties.

It's not too hard to make the building habitable by adding a shower.

preventative clause in lease: "property is rented as-is except for conditions affecting habitability"

Learning to do this is vital for me, since I am really being forced out of my own market by the fact that it's so hot that everyone and their brother, from all over the world, is buying here.