We have found some small apartments online in the detroit area but being from out of state we need to find a good realtor and property manager in the detroit area.

Generally, if the tenant is willing to accept $500 or $1,000 and save you the expense of filing for an eviction, that is a better option and also serves to preserve the condition of the property. 

Most people seem to avoid the conversation about all the Real Estate risk takers that played the biggest part in the housing crisis.A few years before the bubble burst I was encountering real estate investors, house flippers, and buy-and-hold participants everywhere I went, my waitress at The Cheesecake Factory, the two McDonalds employees talking deals on their lunch break, the clerk at the grocery store, everyone everywhere appeared to be a real estate investor in one form or another getting a piece of the housing boom.The underlining problem I noticed was during the rush to get into the RE industry most of the people capitalizing in the industry never learned the basics of RE investing and were simply doing what their friends, neighbors, coworkers, or online postings told them to do to get a piece of the pie.

Now is not the time to save the fee of a CPA.

However, if it lands you with a good mentor from which to learn, it could save you thousands in mistakes you will not make going forward.

The neighborhood isn't the best, so I'm trying to decide if I should 1031 it into a better property in a better neighborhood for my family and I to move to or use my savings to acquire another home to live in.

Although I do plan to sell within the next 3 years (military orders) I want to make sure I didn't make a terrible mistake by lowering my payments now just to save a few hundred dollars but increasing my total loan.

Due diligence will save you most of the headaches you are dealing with most of the time.  

They spent $1.5 million correcting that problem.Back in 1998, I saved a good friend over a million dollars by sharing with him something I knew about a community that he did not and he was less than 72 hours from closing on the park.

I'm leaning towards just saving a bit more so I can get in the the commercial side 5 units plus.