I see you want regular tools and yard tools.  

I usually regular mail it to them as well so that if they refuse service, they still get it in the mail. 

You will have all the regular expenses with no income.

I would do a craigslist search in the neighborhood very regularly for homes for rent.  

I’ve rented the home since 1/2014 and it’s been cash flow positive for the last year after regular annual rent increases .  

For the experienced investors regularly using hard or private money would you foresee any issues in borrowing money from an out of country investor looking to do the same as the OP?

With regular inspections, I'm not as worried about using all of the security deposit for damage, but I have had the "by the way, I'm moving and I'm using my security deposit as last month's rent" situation thrown at me, despite the lease agreement stating the contrary.As a result, I have also gone to collecting last month's rent in addition to a security deposit upon move-in.

If I build and sell a condo on the other side of the lot, I would assume that the taxed value would remain the same (aside from the regular annual increases) for the original home and that the new owner would pay taxes only on the value of the second home ($300k) and no property taxes. 

I visit the ones near me somewhat regularly but I rarely visit any of the ones further out, if you have good management in place there really isnt a reason to visit other than to spot check once in a while to see if anything is degrading, I think you could visit less than 1x per year easily, I trust my MI property management so much that there are some properties I have never visited, granted those are cheaper single family properties.

I recommend regular price drops until it sells.