I have the tenant pay ALL utilities, cut grass, maintain yard etc.

I don't want to cut corners just to save a few bucks, I want someone who can give me solid advice based on my RE goals and hopefully grow from them besides doing my taxes.

I've also found that freelancers on these services don't really think long term and are more interested in getting the one task completed and paid for so they tend to cut corners and complete things in a way that will lead you to have to hire more people downstream to either fix issues that were done incorrectly before or redo previously completed work to accommodate a new scope that wasn't anticipated before.

I guess if it's a vacant space, a local property manager or such would work, if it's occupied retail space, occupant can go in as an observer.I see some agents doing listings across 20 different states, they refer to a "broker of record" so i guess they give a cut to someone local to that area to be able to close the deal, so they don't have to obtain a license in each of the states.

The question that keeps stumping me is, when I refinance the original loan to take the equity, would that not raise my mortgage payment on the original  house, therefore cutting down my potential profits on the next purchase?

Will the IRS only come after what is left in the 401k for their cut?  

You will want them to hold open houses, screen tenants well, cut costs on repairs, do basic make readies in 3-5 days and big rehabs in 2-4 weeks.Often properties can stay vacant in the winter time in Ohio for months at a time. 

Always do the math analysis and try to look at your prospective properties before you make an offer or at least have a clause in the sales contract that allows you the time (10 to 15 days) to make a entailed inspection of the subject property and possibly back out of the deal without a penalty that hurts you too much.Do not cut any corners on your evaluations to make them look better on paper but not in reality.  

After much back and forth, the agents cutting their commission, one agent paying for a washing machine out of pocket, three rejected counter-offers.... we ended up at $603k.

Michael, Your best bet is to partner with a builder and take a cut of the building portion.