I am going to purchase the 4 houses with my brother-in-law as a joint venture.

Before I joined this community, DIY would not have entered my mind. 

In my opinion, DIY DILs are not a good idea unless you know what you are doing.

If a more reasonable amount of time was offered, a better approach would be to allocate some to public REITs, some to private syndications, some to directly owned properties in prime locations and the rest to active business ventures.

Many OOS investors set themselves up for failure because they don't truly take the time to understand:1) The Class of the NEIGHBORHOOD they are buying in - which is relative to the overall area.2) The Class of the PROPERTY they are buying - which is relative to the overall area.3) The Class of the TENANT POOL the Neighborhood & Property will attract - which is relative to the overall area.4) The Class of the CONTRACTORS that will work on their Property, given the Neighborhood location - which is relative to the overall area.5) The Class of the PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANIES (PMC) that will manage their Property, given the Neighborhood location and the Tenants it will attract - which is relative to the overall area.6) That OOS property Class rankings are usually vastly different than the local market they live in.7) That a Class X NEIGHBORHOOD will have mostly Class X PROPERTIES, which will only attract Class X TENANTS, CONTRACTORS AND PMCs and deliver Class X RESULTS.8) Class A is relatively easy to manage, can even be DIY remote managed from another state.9) Class B usually also okay, but needs more attention from owner and/or PMC10) Class C can be relatively successful with a great PMC (do NOT hire the cheapest!)

( I’m not talking about 2-4 units)I did the partnership thing when I first started out and I can assure you that I would prefer to own properties with just my wife and I.Without syndication you can have a Joint Venture Agreement between parties.

Real estate and other business ventures.

Also to fund additional business ventures etc.

@Brittany Wilkerson I have some videos and posts about possession, especially about taking DIY possession without a court order.

Keep in mind a platform that was built for smaller DIY landlords (1-15 units), whereas some of the larger platforms might not be as cost-efficient, whereas a small one built with DIY landlords in mind offers state-specific leases (based on the property address; uses that property address to import all necessary local clauses into that residential lease and allows you to add custom clauses and renter rules to it as well).