Hopefully this isn't too macabre, but as my portfolio gets bigger I've been thinking about how big of nightmare it would be for my wife to deal with should I die suddenly and unexpectedly.

You probably got the cheapest possible appliances, many these days are "throw away" when they break down in A and outlet of years.I think 5% is very delusional.

With any active investment, you need to plan for the unexpected.

repair/replace damaged sheetrock- wipe down and clean all walls throughout house- wipe down and clean all doors and throughout house- paint trim and doors- replace missing/broken blinds- replace missing/damaged doorstops- replace all light switch and outlet covers- replace missing/broken light bulbs- make sure all doors open/shut properly- make sure all windows open/close properly- replace air filter- replace batteries in the smoke detectorsThat is the trouble with out of town stuff That is probably  a $100 bucks of material s and a few hours labor 

Special assessments come from the hoa for any expense they run into which they did not already collect enough funds, either unexpected or under-budgeted... 

There will always be the unexpected, but I'm not paying extra for something a pro should have foreseen in his initial bid. 

That's also not including management, snow/landscaping costs, or any other unexpected costs. 

What strategy is right for you may differ from the next guy, but regardless the strategy, I feel that the risk/reward/security of the investment should be at the forefront...in other words any risk should he intentionally taken, not jumped into blind, and therefore unexpected things were planned for in advance.

I found him on youtube and he was talking about bigger pockets so I decided to click on over and check it out.   Let's

Unfortunately, they ran 14/2 wire from every outlet in a room to a (not to code) junction box above the rooms, wire-nutted everything together in the box, and cut off all of the ground wires both in the outlet boxes and junction boxes.