These people are clearly the victim of some brilliant guru who told them how to retire early/escape the rat race/be their own boss/etc, but forgot to mention the part about it being really tough, and like 95% of people (rough estimate just from my brief experience here on BP) fail. 

the biggest indication of a investor failing in real estate is not having enough reserves to get through the rainy seasons of the investment where as people who can get through over a long period of time do extremely well.

And if their credit is trashed and they fail to qualify for a new place, then what?

We are having to build a lot of systems/processes around it's failings (i.e.

As I sold enough that I got full payment on to afford to do those types of deals and I can tell you I sold more RE than most in my market because I never let a deal fail because of downpayment issues..

However the owner had failed to maintain rental licenses on each for the past 9 years.

Try it a few times if you think private investors or private money is just going to chase you and chase you or HML are so eager and have no criteria which most would fail to meet. 

A PM would have taken most of that.I have seen too many OOS investors fail buying cheap properties in rough areas not recognising that over time capex exceeds cash flow.

If a property fails these benchmarks, it’s likely not worth the time to perform a deeper analysis.Risk Management: By adhering to these rules, I aim to minimize the risk of overpaying for properties or underestimating operational costs.

I don’t want to fail, but I’m terrified I might pick the wrong market, work with the wrong broker, hire the wrong property management company or choose a property that ends up needing more work than expected.