After some thought, I think accepting roommates would be fine as long as I screen each of them separately and make sure each of them meet the requirements (income, etc.) on their own.

Insurance on building, water and sewerage, phone service, cable TV, maintenance and landscaping"  That seems like pretty good value to me.  

A guru is the guy who appears on TV or the radio, promising that he can teach you how to make money in real estate.

Think of it like a commercial on TV or the radio.  

I am concerned about balancing family life with selling real estate, however-- I don't need to watch TV.  

I do find it Ironic.. here on BP you have all these people that just jump up and down about how not to spend a dime on any paid for mentoring or of course a TV Guru.. but they will go out and blow what cash they have and or run up credit cards trying to be a wholesaler  and at the end of the day they get less education than if they paid for a mentor and the burn out rate I suspect is over 95% .. and whatever cash they had is gone and now they are in credit card debt..  

No apartment manager would allow that.So I'm starting to wonder if there is a trade-off:  "I'll live in a fourplex (instead of an apartment complex) as long as I can be more relaxed about junk, behavior, tenant screening, etc."

Lots of lessons learned on tenant screening and lots of lessons to learn on the eviction process. 

They allow you to chose from a  variety of screening reports and services. 

What I think  fertile ground for this is to get in with a TV Guru who does the 20 to 50k training's and attend those I have done 3 this year and you find some quality folks there. one they paid a bunch to be there ,,, they get a pretty decent training and a lot of them are already experienced..