REI is no different than anything else that piques your interest in life...you spend time learning and doing it to see if you like it.

People are even willing to over pay to put their money to work, so if this were my deal in my market, I would spend some time on what the as is value of the property really is.

Owning a single digit of house units are not worth the time you have to spend on them or turn them them over and they usually cost you twice as much as you have thought or saved for. 

In my jurisdiction I would leave a unit empty indefinitely before renting to anyone on any form of government assistance.

Hi Geoffry, I am using assured automation flow meters but I still haven't sprung for the wireless gateway  yet (I'm still spending all my money buying properties) but I still hope to soon.

When I have previously checked into this with my accountant it seems their are very specific tests to pass to be considered a materially participating passive investor, namely that you must spend half of your time and at least 750 documented hours in passive real estate to qualify to deduct depreciation. 

Some make it sound like a full time job, I would say I don't spend more than 2-3 hours a week managing his property, even in the harsh winters of Boston.No LLC costs, etc.

My live-in property maintenance guy assisted a lot.

I don't know how much I trust him personally, but he did make some good points, one of which was using SFR as an Assisted Living Rental.

She could, but her actual response was “I only have one year left of grad school, I’ll make it work” which means “I’ll spend more time away as to not cause an issue with the landlord” so I suppose the landlord wins!