I manage them from my phone with a day job, a family, 3 dogs, I've run 22 full marathons, I eat lightning and crap thunder. 

I dropped off my sisters dog to her friend that lives there and it seemed like a lot of hoodlums living and walking the streets at night.

You can also start walking your dog in the neighborhood you're looking to invest in, or better yet, you can start knocking on doors and asking people that live there how it is.

He replaced the carpet (had three dogs that weren't house trained).

One prospect even quoted the Fair Housing Act and basically said I have to take her dog.

I think these would be neededLocal lawsLeases/contractsEnforcing leasesEnforcing late rent feesDeveloping a teamAutomating your business (no collecting rent etc)Inspections/maintenanceScreening and selecting quality tenantsHandling deposits and how much deposit to collectPet feesService animalsaggressive breed dogs that your insurance company won't allow (and you shouldn't either)Move in inspections - Move out inspections - Deposit withholding requirementsBroken leasesEvictionsPest controlhaving lock boxes for use during vacancies so tradesmen can get into propertyHows that for a start?

With that said, I have researched the path of being a bird dog which allows me to get my “feet wet” in the business without having a big marketing budget or actually locking up the home under contract.

If you're ever not too sure about a market, look at what the big dog builders are doing.

Finding human feces in a unit… During the turnover period at the apartment complex where I worked, we walked in to do our normal move-out walk through and smelled something foul (we thought it maybe was dog urine or feces).

(I'm assuming your doing 50+ unit apartments)and if not, then that seems to explain why you can be more free spirited with deal analysis.OR, maybe your leads are more tailored to your liking than most.. leaving less room for outliers.. which seems like a valuable method, just be clear with your brokers and bird dogs, and you've got less time to waste on getting nitty gritty..