How about offering them help with cleaning up their yard and getting excess junk hauled away which can definitely increase the value your property in a buyers eye?

Overall, need the property to cashflow positive and pay for itself.TerryI will let the CPA's of BP chime in but i think part of the new tax law was no write off on helocs in excess of basis..

Do you want to get to x number of doors so you can retire or are you looking to park some excess cash in an asset you can control? 

Any expenses in excess of your rental income from related parties is not deductible. 

I am sure  there is excessive wear and tear.

As Elijah said, if the deals aren't cash flowing in excess of the preferred return on day 1, don't distribute monthly.

So we pay title company > title company pays loan, and if there is any excess, this goes to the seller/original borrower.Assumptions, while they still happen, are much more rare in my experience. 

But the truth is I budget conservatively and would rather have excess reserves than be scrambling to come with cash when expenses come up.  

Even though they are paying for the utilities, it is putting excessive wear on the system and I worry it will fail prematurely, which would be my cost to bear.Does such a product exist?

I like deals that generate 2k or a more, a Month, in excess cash flow after all debt seduce and expenses are paid for.