How should I set up our agreement for who the landlord is?

I'll pay thru this if this is real deal but how do I know I'm dealing with the right person?

My Mom's family grew up with two generations of the local family get togethers and knowing all the extended cousins, so did my wife's family.

Nothing beats a custom optimized CRM to fit your needs and how you do business.I honestly feel like everyone selling CRM try really hard to make people believe they need an "out-of-the-box" system, but this truly HAS to be customized to how you manage your leads.For Lead generation we leverage GrumpyHare. 

How can they guarantee a rate of return and a 9 month hold period?

@Joshua WeiI know a great firm for cost segregations.

This aligns with the other responses in the thread, as passive activity losses (PAL) rules govern how these losses are applied across your rental portfolio.

This is the best way to ensure that you know exactly what you're purchasing.And most of the time, you can use the findings of that report to reduce the purchase price/get a credit at closing for way more than the ~$400 inspection report.  

Let me know if you need any more help.

. - how many catch basins you will need, hydrants   - etc.Very important you must utilize both sides of the road to maximize your effective cost for the road and utilities when building.