They really offer me the flexibility and risk tolerance I am looking for.

I get a rough overview of what people are asking for rents for rooms in my neighborhood and then I adjust my rent for the room I'm offering based on the size of the room, number of people sharing the bathroom that room uses, time of year I am trying to rent the room (I dropped the price a little bit in the winter months to keep vacancy at almost zero.), etc.  

Vertically integrated  they have call centers they have closers that run out to the property the second they get a lead they have office staff to handle the transactions..  3. owner is sharp knows the business inside out.. and frankly would do very well at just about any business they wanted to work in.those that do this on their own with zero help.. those come and go with the wind.. failure rate I suspect is far more than 90%Along with Markets matter.. do you live and work in a market with excess inventory that can be had.. or are U in a very tight market.. tight markets are tough..

It taught me that with time virtually all real estate will be able to generate favorable returns even the ones that were purchased with zero strategy.

Good liaiblity policy on the property (don't skimp)2.

I suspect the "Termite Insurance" policy is just another way to get a few bucks from you. 

My first property was also last year, and am hoping to complete the purchase of the next two before the end of June (this is the deal in question).My goal is 2 properties per year... so after June I will use the remainder of 2019 to sit back and monitor, refine housing policies, maybe take a RE course, move to e-docs lease signing... basically just come up with ways to automate and make things easier for myself moving forward (since I also have a semi-demanding FT job).

You may want to look into an umbrella policy first instead depending on the equity you have in your properties.

So at that purchase price and ZERO down (80 bank/20 seller) your after debt service income is something like 5k, which leaves very little room for error, one major roof issue or other capex event and you may be in trouble. 

What if she had zero money, wouldn't the government just pay for this?