Real estate investors were full time real estate business people who owned larger type properties.  

Security deposits require separate handling - they should be placed in an interest-bearing account.3.

Well, you can put your self on the federal opt out list here:   https://www.optoutprescreen.com/This might be great time to do it as if you have purchased any property within 23 or 24 you likely will be in the money to refi already or soon.

I need to spend a little more time researching this.

$1,500 per entity may seem high at first glance, but the cost can vary significantly depending on the complexity of your tax situation, especially with multiple LLCs, state filings, and the need to correctly allocate capital contributions and losses on the K-1s.

I prefer VA's in this hemisphere so time zones line up better.

I’m looking to earn a full time income from rentals/flips/etc.  

The law of large numbers states that if you can increase the likelihood of a renewal of any given tenant over time with enough tenants, you will increase your renewal rate substantially.

You probably don't want to invest in someone's first deal unless you know them extremely well, so make sure you ask about the management team's track record of doing deals together. 

Sure it can be a write off, but my question is if it is the highest and best use of your time (or the given employees time) to be running a skid steer - transporting it, storage, maintenance, cleaning, etc, and if it still makes sense if you need to hire someone to run it for you and take care of the other things.Add up all those recurring costs - maintaining the machine, maintaining the trailer, having a large enough truck to tow it, insurance and registration for all of the above, your time or your employees time related to all of the above...even at $14k a year it might be attractive enough to keep paying that and having them drop it off at the job site for you.A brand new machine could easily cost you over 6 figures - that's 7 years of rentals at $14k/year before including all the holding costs.