She's agreed to maintain the loan and rate for 5 years.

Here those units within 5-10 minutes walking distance of campus are best purposed for student housing - both because they are most desirable to the students and less desirable to other populations.Within this radius:A multi-unit building comprised primarily of 2 bedroom units with a few 1-bedroom and/or 3-bedroom apartments works well;A house with 4-5 rooms is appealing to groups of chums (mates) looking to live together, though social cohesion is more difficult to maintain and annual turnover is common;A house with several furnished rooms (and a live-in Den Mother) is appealing to International Students.We have been fortunate to experience very little in the way of "student damages" to properties, but we screen very thoroughly and almost always require a guarantor (typically parents or grandparents) to backstop any damage or fiscal failure of little Janey or Johnny.  

I pay water in the quad-plexes and maintain home warranties on all of them (cost roughly $375 per year). 

Definitions will vary, but when it comes to apartments, some general rules of thumb:Property TypesClass A: Built within the last decade OR older property that has been very nicely renovated/well-maintained and is located in popular neighborhoodLots of amenities (doorman, security system, washer/dryer inside the apartment units, stainless steel kitchen appliances, on-site gym, doggy park, package room, reserved parking, etc.) 

It is a way to maintain some level of privacy and avoid probate.

I'm not going to lie a lot of people around here think California investors are ignorant and usually laugh at them saying "you can tell that was a California investor" because most overpay and don't maintain the property.

South Korea, whose citizens are a huge player in the crypto market, today passed major, major restrictions on the use of cryptocurrency.If you think that the recorder of deeds is going to get their system to run on blockchain - a more secure way to maintain and transfer records - anytime this century, consider that the internet has been around for almost 35 years and we still have systems run on paper in many parts of the country.

My goal is to maintain a certain amount (2-4x the size of the equity required alongside debt )as we pursue deals.

I would recommend that you collectively spend some more time on the business plan 1) If you are creating only a property management company then it makes sense to have some formality around it. 2) If the long term goal is to use the same vehicle for JV deals then it might not be optimal given you will have varying equity splits based on the deals. 3) If you are taking client money and a management fee then you are talking about a much different need.  

@Kole Kingslien, each property is listed separately on the Schedule E, so I would highly recommend maintaining separate records for each property.