Ideally you'd be there too (or a manager if you had one) as that is best practice in my opinion, but being remote you just have to outsource everything to people you trust. 

What's really the practical situation.** Strictly restricting this for when doing comps between properties in the same sub-division **

Only thing better would be initial deposit and then paid in full upon Certificate of Occupancy and punchlist complete.Of course, standard items should also be checked: licensed, insured, willing and able to pull all required permits, reference checks.I would also commonly avoid the cheapest bid you get.  

I do think that having a contractor give you quotes is MUCH better, but often not completely practical or ideal either.

Look into local rental demand—perhaps that area can support a short-term or mid-term rental strategy instead of a standard yearly lease, which might boost your income.

Without reserves, they might be unable to evict tenants or prepare the units once they are vacant.Great points—walking the property and speaking with tenants during due diligence is a practice we now prioritize, along with running tenant histories through eviction databases.

Wood has a huge variability in strength--between pine varieties, the stress which can cause them to fail varies by more than 2x and you can see 20%+ increase in strength as it ages.Then I have stress concentrations which will yield and then redistribute the load in practice, but not according to the calculations I'm allowed to do. 

I could likely see many things from the TCJA being made permanent, mostly procedural items like the higher standard deduction and child tax credit (Plus eliminating exemptions).

The payments tend to be lower than a standard cash out refi, so if you end up in a tight cash spot, you have the flexibility to pay less for a bit until you get your bearings again. 

I self-manage, but I understand that's not a practical option for most people.