Two flats seem to all net negative, though they are the only ones possible from a 5% DP perspective... even including a garden apartment.Breaking even, were you wouldn't need to pay, would be a success. 

I do my best to eliminate paper altogether, but it still comes, and still needs to be digitized.

I've been investing since 2006, sold all my SFR and solely investing in commercial e.g. warehouse/industrial.I handle acquisitions and leasing for a flat fee.

I can't speak to what other Self-Directed IRA companies charge, but Directed IRA charges a flat rate $295 annual account fee regardless of how many assets or what the account value is. 

It's not just flat billbacks since at $50 (or whatever number), that's $50 if you don't use a drop vs $50 for leaving every faucet running 24/7. 

For example, we have a rental with a flat roof. 

The roof is flat which concerns me if we get a bad winter, though I've had no issues so far.- The property should cash flow by 300 or more.

You can also ask for a flat fee.

Your client likely can skip the HML route altogether and from the get-go get funding with the “alternative” sources that lend on a basis of credit score, LTV, DSCR and bank statements (no tax returns).

a dead body, another dead body, pet rattlesnakes that escape, finding someone unconscious and unresponsive (drug overdose, I probably saved that guys life), buying someone a 1 way bus ticket to get home since his girlfriend left him and took his truck, giving jump starts and fixing flat tires, having a tenant have an affair with his bosses wife who is also a tenant, taking people to the ER, walking in to a vacant property and finding an intruder face to face (he went to jail for 18 months), multiple tenants that don't know each other experiencing paranormal activity in one particular house (it's haunted), catching an intruder with a security camera and calling the police who apprehend them (caught it all on the camera), shooting pigeons with a pellet gun that got in a house through a window someone left open.