When you own an apartment complex that has a minimum of 32 units you will be able to hire a property managed by an experienced Property Management Company on a daily basis and free you up to be more productive. 

I did hire a friend of mine to help tear down a wall and put up a header beam in its place.

You can offer to rent a truck, hire a couple movers, pay them cash, etc.

After you get some experience, I highly recommend paying up and hiring a property manager. 

Just co-mingle money 1 time, or self manage the properties or do any of the work on the properties yourself rather than hiring a property manager or contractors to perform the work and that can be used to pierce the veil. 

Point taken on seperate meters in the future, but it's probably not worth the thousands of dollars I'd have to spend just to save $35/month.Also fwiw I interviewed 7 PMs before I hired.

I hired a contractor to handle things while I was away.

So maybe no need to make this harder than it is -- just find some cashflow properties you like (that won't lose much value when the downturn hits) and hire a good property manager, so that you are not dealing with tenants and toilets. 

It’s not a lot of security as between your second position and the first, there isn’t much equity protecting a default  Also, what type of professional would you hire to prepare the mortgage paperwork?

So would you recommend gutting down to studs and then hiring a mold remediation to come out and take care of the studs if there’s mold on those?