With investment property its very common for the investors to give power of attorney and we conduct the closing ourselves. 

Second guy said he is an electrician, but all the power outlets are not working.

The “dead equity” argument is that the ROI on your equity when you have a paid off property is very limited.  

The fund can be formed to invest in a single asset, or multiple assets, so the Fund size is probably limited only by cost considerations.  

Limited monthly cash flow, but maintain good rate of principle reduction at 15K and say appreciation of property at 2% a year.Shortly after joining the Army I was interested in using both retirement accounts (couldn't contribute to TSP then) and real estate to prepare for the future. 

First question does it make sense to spend all that money into a room that is not a bedroom  within the city limits of Birmingham?  

They may have limits on the number of rental properties and often are militant about neighborhood rules.The "little" HOAs don't scare me at all. 

The New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association (http://www.nypiua.com) should be able to provide limited coverage.

I an thinking of buying my first rental property but wanted to know if it's better to open an LLP or LLC. What are the pros and cons and how to get started 

There's acreage limitations to preserve the zoning situation that I'm in, and if I go below 5 acres then I can only be single family residential. that doesn't mean I need the land for any other reason than to preserve zoning.