But I have found that being honest and open has consistently been a good practice.

It's the closest thing I know to living practically free.As far as problems between tenants, I haven't really seen a lot of issues in 2-4 plexes.

Forget about funding - you won't be needed when you practice and .learn how to control because you will be assigning your contract for all cash - and FORGET about appraisals and inspection turn-downs because you will be offering your contract (property) in "as is" condition.

What we realized is that we had expectations that we assumed were standard practice.

@Paul Younger do you practice in Izard County?

question, best practice is to put it on Sch E if you own it, Sch C if you don't.

Here in the Northeast, anything built from 1980 and newer is considered practically brand new, 1950 to 1980 is considered "newer",  about 1900 - 1950 is just sort of what you expect, and anything in the 1800s is considered old. 

All theoretical from my perspective as I have just heard and read that, never practiced.

@Ronald Rohde - That's a good point but as a private practice owner and real estate agent, I'm already receiving those midnight calls and texts and around the clock questions, emails, etc.

If you can't see that, or want to try to just paint them all with a broad stroke of being lucky (and some of them were, no doubt) then I can't really help you out by sitting down and showing you examples as you are literally surrounded by them.Many ways to make returns in RE, cash flow being only one of them ... and no I'm not saying anyone should ignore that one, just consider it along with the others, over the entire lifetime of the investment ... this is sound practice in any market IMO.