I live in Lebanon, IL and this property is also in Saint Clair County in Belleville.I plan on managing this at first, but want to build a proper amount into my budget.What would you recommend for budgeting for in terms of good property management in this area?

I appreciate your plan to do 1031 and get back into the game.

What’s your contingency plan if costs overrun?

It should be relatively straightforward to begin discussing the goal-setting and planning process necessary to begin transitioning from current state to future state. 

I had planned to slowly build an investment portfolio on my own.

It sounds like you’ve got a solid plan and a great passion for real estate investing.

If I find a property in the Denver area, I plan to house hack although Denver's price point is a hurdle for me so I'm leaning towards long-distance opportunities.   

I only plan to manage these two from out of state until we're able to refinance our second home as we're losing money on this particular house for rent as we bought this home last year. 

This can potentially lead to problems and the safety of the others in the home.I am planning on speaking with him about the lease violations and switching him from yearly to monthly with an increase in rent, due to the increased labor of the cat and the checks in of the cleanliness of the room. 

The game plan would be to keep this structure for 1-2 years with future full sale.