My other option is to own my primary free and clear, but 4% savings in a 3% inflationary environment is idle cash indeed. 

Set it up so that if the buyer pays every month for 25 years they own the house free and clear.

@Eric Schwake,You can't use equity in the house that you own free and clear to buy a note (or any other investment), you would have to do cash our refinance to pull the cash and then use that to invest.$20K is definitely on the low side so your options for fining a note in this price range will be limited, but it is not possible, there are some out there... just be sure to do your due diligence and make sure that the underlying property is not a piece of crap, be prepared to foreclose in a case of a default and become the owner of that property.

PLus ZERO % financing.. if you do not have use for the extra money a month  LIke bills or something I would continue to pay this down you can own it free and clear pretty quick with zero interest.. and when its free and clear you have your self one great asset and all the cash flow.

We always pull permits and I was wondering if I bought something that is clearly an addition, if it would bite me later.

We were getting close to closing, and we find out that an 18 year old grandchild had to sign to get a clear title for some reason or another...WELL the 18 year old had to have his guardian sign also, and THEN...proof of guardianship could not be provided because the guardianship document was kept at a courthouse that flooded.

However, it wasn't clear if that was only for tenants on a month-to-month lease without a defined lease termination date (which is what our leases are based on).I would certainly appreciate any insight on legal requirements surrounding notice period on raising rents in Colorado.

Do you know exactly what they are, and have you clearly communicated them to people who want to apply for your apts? 

After being burned by tenants that get behind and never end up paying and lead to eviction I now state in my lease that we start the eviction process the day after the rent is due, but I make sure that is clear form the beginning and if they fail to pay then we charge a late fee and start the process of eviction based on my states requirements.The reality of the matter is that if they don't take the rent out of their paycheck then they most likely wont pay the rent, if they do then they are borrowing money which will put even more financial burden on them and make it less likely to pay on time the next month, or they are waiting until their next check to cover the rent and then will have a hard time catching up in order to pay on time snowballing into perpetual late payments.If you really think about it allowing a tenant to get behind on the rent ends up hurting the tenant, you are not helping in any way.

While she is a landlord herself, and so has a great perspective on the issues, she was very clear on how seriously MA takes this.