I distinctly remember there were things they did with the hot water heaters, and they were advocating replacing the rubber hoses on appliances that use water (such as dishwasher, washing machine, etc) with some kind of metal hoses that are virtually indestructible.There was a goldmine of information about good preventative maintenance steps for rental houses...

As someone looking to hire a contractor.... it would be a red flag to me that you would be asking for this downpayment... then again, a 6 figure project may not be that big of a deal?

I got bored, with all of the down time between cashing rent checks and fixing toilets at 2AM so I went to graduate school and also became a an engineering consultant.About 10 years later I took a full time job again and am now a professor in manufacturing engineering, own a virtual manufacturing company, a media production company, and because of real estate investing, this year I will donate more than my take home pay back to the university I work for.I can honestly say that I retired at 26.

If you don't know something, be generous enough to hire a "competent" professional.

Would you make more money by hiring out the job while you focus on making connections to sell the property or finding your next one? 

Hi, I am a new investor and am interested in hiring a CPA for annual tax filing and general tax advice purposes.

I've gotten out of the idea of hiring a contracting company and more into hiring contractors/ handypeople hourly to do work for me. 

Recently (last year) I hired a management company to help me out as my day job working in IT has consumed much of my time and I wanted more time to spend with my daughter.

Since the contractor I hired was bad.

If I invest in another state I will likely hire a property manager.