The percent rule might be 1%A super high dividend stock might indicate the price is going down and the dividend is about to get cut. 

@Dustin CornellJust be very careful with using notes and mortgages you find online.

I don't have any clear-cut answers, but here's what I've found during my research.I'm also in the NE so heating is the main need.

We did not expect these carvings or deep scratches that looked like they just dragged things across the floors and didn't even care to use any caution. 

If someone has been taking care of it and try to claim it you will have to deal with the legal process of redemption or try to foreclose on it (this all depends on NY state law regarding tax liens)

Find a good wholesaler in your area and offer to work for knowledge or a cut of deals you bring to the table. 

Writing grandma a $2k check is better than one's inheritance going down by >$2k AND taking care of your elders is the right thing to do anyways. 

Some will care of nature of incident, others will be indifferent.We've gotten into a property that had a suicide by hanging in the garage and the next buyer felt it had nothing to do with them and didn't blink.Plan extra padding in your budget for worse case scenarios.

You can outsource marketing (any agent will list it), accounting (any CPA) but without relationship with Tenants you'll have constant problems.Such companies exist - they take phone calls 24/7 and then transfer them to PM to coordinate contractors.If you don't care about your bottom line, you can hire such a company: they will call to the most expensive plumber co, electric co, etc - you pay the money, they fix the problem.Fixing toilet would take you 10 min plus driving, they will call the plumbing company which takes $200 just to diagnose the issue (im not kidding - I've had such thing).

Take care!