Most surrounding areas are just as expensive.

For example, if in the rental application you don't put xyz it's illegal and you can get suedif in the rental application you mention xyz it's illegal and you can get suedif you put clause xyz in the lease, it's illegal and you can get suedif you don't put xyz clause in the lease, it's illegal and you can get suedif you sign the lease wrong, the whole lease is void and you don't have a leaseif you don't provide xyz to the tenant, you can get suednot to mention how unfriendly my state is with respect to landlords, if a tenant is not paying rent, good luck evicting them. plenty of properties in my market for dirt cheap because it has deadbeat tenants and nobody wants to deal with them.yes in an ideal world I have 20 lawyers and accountants on speed dial who I can call any time, but lawyers and accountants are expensive and I have done the math, at best if you are really lucky you can barely cover your mortgage, I don't have money for a lawyer.

The loan can be pre-paid. 

Be careful using a conventional loan because you may not be able to use the rental income like the example above if you do not have a current housing expense (live rent free).

I keep thinking the more regulation the more expensive it will get. 

Verify if there are any outstanding violations or issues that need to be addressed.Financial Analysis: Review the property's financial records, including income statements, expense reports, tax assessments, and utility bills.

It's 2 properties, single family homes, in the SF Bay Area.Sharing some details that might help inform the decision, let me know if anything else would be relevant.One property fully paid off, generates between $20-30k in profit after expenses (property taxes, hoa, insurance, etc).The other property is our current primary residency and would operate at a loss of about $10k/year.I plan to travel back to the US at least once a year, could that be a deductible expense with an LLC? 

Going through an attorney can be extremely expensive and would be curious if anyone has another source? 

(note passive income S taxed as normal income...gets added to reportable income for that year) Do people (have you) actually set up a company to charge for management expenses?

I'm also curious what others have paid for this work in DFW.