I'm not saying that real estate is easy so don't misquote me there, but relative to almost any other business you can purchase that has a reasonable chance at producing revenue, the property manager/house-hacker has to be up there.Your tenants are right next door - you know if they aren't treating the property well.  

Let's say I am interested in value plays on income producing assets for the long-term buy and hold.

Or become aggressive, build a Real Estate Business that produces massive income and runs on it's own.  

You don't don't want to get a $1,000 credit at closing and then 6 months later when a tenant moves out, they produce a $2,000 deposit receipt!

Also be sure to check out with your friend what kind of financial standing the building is in (when was their last increase on the coop fees etc and is there any capital expenditure planned in the near future) as these monthly fees don't go away and can definitely inhibit your ability to produce cash flow from Coops..Hope this helps somewhat!

Was a challenge to live through this procedure with a 3 year old and newborn! 

One SFR that produces $1300/month.

Most people in life are simply not producers and are not capable of delivering value on a consistent basis.  

In the past, if a LL declined a perspective tenant based on a credit report, they had to produce the report. 

I paid 10k for one of the duplexes that produces 10k a year.