I have been considering obtaining a general contractors license only so that I can obtain additional builders insurance to protect myself because going through each contractor's insurance paper work and asking them to add me to their policy is not practical on some smaller cosmetic jobs.

Do you have to keep paper files or can you transfer everything to digital? 

This most recent one was a toilet leak.  

One thing I've been doing is getting my thoughts out on paper.

If you are paying more than that it's  likely easily fixed by replacing the toilets with the high efficiency version (this has consistently been the case and has helped reduce the cost of sewer and water by 40-50% on properties that had old toilets).

Do you count how many times they flush the toilet?

We cc our handyman on all emails coming into that alias email so he's in the loop> he has authorization to proceed with scheduling for items like a leaky toilet, garbage disposal, irrigation leak, etc. 

Better to keep the place vacant and in good shape then to have a non-paying tenant who is destroying the place nightly.If you put an ad in the paper advertising the place at $1.00 a month you would have a line.

I think newbies need to run to the property analysis tool on bigger pockets and understand what they're looking at instead of worrying about become a millionaire on paper in so many years.

If Mike doesn't report any net income, like many of us, it is because the depreciation and expenses associated with his portfolio reported a paper loss which offsets any income for tax purposes only.