I wouldn't recommend trying to claim personal expenses as business expenses, even though some "big name" hot shots (RDPD, Chapter 5) have tried to sell that snake oil to the gullible.There's a lot of bad info out there, unfortunately. 

We want to build our portfolio with rental properties, but need to work with turn-key companies out of state as the local area is too hot to make the numbers work.

Kind of had a feeling this would happen going in, so only paid about 50% of property value in a hot area of KC where DOM is <30 days.  

Since our building does not have common amenities such as hot tub, swimming pool, etc, we knew that families with children would probably opt for one of the other condo buildings that did offer those things.

The key to good bookkeeping is knowing how to slot accounts or select the best account to enter the data in.It's not hard to learn so that you understand rather than trying to learn a mechanical process and then bump into some problem not knowing what to do with something that doesn't fit a format.I'd think Quickbooks would be good for the mechanical side. :)

Water will do a lot of damage in a short time.Are your tenants without hot water?

Someone dies in your rental because the vent pipe on your hot water heater rusted out and collapsed and the house filled up with carbon monoxide killing the medical Dr. who lived there. 

I came up with an idea for a ThrowBack Jersey which was Hot at the time , that idea got picked up by a distributor and I personally Managed to get the Product in Macy's and other retailiers.

The reason is they come into a hot market cycle for a few years and when deals do not fall into their lap anymore they do not know how to survive and leave the business.I hear about a lot of people getting into residential because  the markets are HOT again and everyone is making money etc.

Here rents are negotiable but the market is hot so it is probably rare...overpriced may sit for a month and then usually get marked down and rent out.