Kristine Marie Poe Thanks for asking exactly what I was trying to get at, but couldn't because I tend to be too long winded and never get to the point.  :-)

But like you said Due Diligence is the key...I tend to lean towards more conservative type of note investing. 

Typically, if you only own one or two properties, all your other expenses (maintenance, mortgage interest, property taxes, DEPRECIATION), tend to outweigh your gross income so that your actual net that flows down to your personal tax return is a loss and not a gain.In that case, you get to deduct up to 25k a year in losses (or all of it if you're a real estate professional).Now if your houses are still cash flowing after all those expenses and your LLC really does have a net gain for the year, then that net gain is going to be treated as income to be taxes by the IRS at the end of the year.

The smaller properties tend to be the wild west and you do not know what kind of PM you can find.  

The inherent nature of DST's tends to corral those projects into lower type returns.For all these reasons most syndicators push for 1031 money to buy directly where the commercial broker can collect a commission instead.

I tend to steer my Investors away from auctions because you're really not going to get the best deal there.

Suburbs are typically better schools all around Columbus, so you might tend to get a stronger tenant or Buyer in suburbs here.  

When renting out something that large you tend to attract LARGE families and/or students/singles, both of which have the potential to put more than average wear and tear on the property. 

Unfortunately people tend to have feelings but money does not.

The rainy season tends to be October to February, thus leaving yourself the potential of those gutters to be jammed pack and doing ore harm then good.