Just check them out and fly out to see the property and area at least once if possible.

We are flying to Cleveland for Veteran Day weekend to look at acquiring two more SFH's. 

I thought I would be safe with my first two 1031 exchanges and invest in what I thought were yield plays and if you are wrong and things go bad real fast, you overpay dramatically and then that snowballs really quickly.Maybe it would be better to refinance, take out equity, tax free and invest as a passive, where someone can teach you everything, step by step and then you can fly free on the rest. 

This will never fly in CA.

I am starting out buying rental property in FL. I

Your economic numbers will tell you it’s a “B” market, the agent(s) will tell you it’s a “B Area”, and after 15 minutes minutes of driving around the area (after you buy the plane ticket, fly out, rent a car) you’ll quickly come to the conclusion that the deal on a spreadsheet doesn’t match the deal in-person.

I don't know if it would fly to put plumbing clogs onto tenants in any of the areas I'm in.

If I was in fly-over country making $15/hour in a sawmill (I know, this is a horrible unfair almost parody of middle-America) I probably can't do that. 

I definitely intend to do things by the book, and won't be attempting to "fly under the radar" in any way.

Fly your butt back here and let’s catch up!