@James Morrissey - my recommendation would be to outsource the first 2 to either an agent or property management company, depending on the predominant method used by your state, and learn the process from them. 

I only help out here and there since I was having a 9-5 job as a programmer working for an HR outsourcing company and was working on Federal Reserve account. 

Many people like to manage their own properties but if you want to build a solid business with systems that run on autopilot your better off outsourcing the day to day and focus on accumulating properties.

I outsourced the roof, AC, Electrical and Plumbing.

Most of us outsource the bigger jobs to a local plumbing company. 

Outsourced flip.

I'd plan on holding it for the long-term and outsourcing the operations of the hotel/motel while I manage the property. 

I want to truly understand all aspects of the business before outsourcing everything to a company. 

However, a newbie investor (or even myself -- I'm not a "handy" person so I have to outsource maintenance and CAPEX) would see this and think its a great deal.

One of the strengths of RE investing is to outsource the debt (ie. get someone else to pay it down).