And he  gave the maintenance  man very cross looks when he found that our smoke detectors  had never been replaced after they were damaged and removed from the flooding incident. 

Sure, you could argue that you'd be collecting rent from your tenants, but good luck finding a multi that has enough positive cash flow to cover the entire mortgage, taxes, insurance, vacancy, maintenance, capex and your living expenses, food, gas, utilities, etc.

Of course, there are a variety of ways to invest in real estate, either direct ownership of the property, holding mortgages secured by real property, etc.While certainly not as common as stock market investing, this is very commonly done and has been for decades. 

Check if any cable providers in your area are offering gigabit internet - that is a huge plus that will require no maintenance once upgraded.

I would also keep maintenance issues in mind, so try avoid adding stuff that will be a late night fix.

I wanted to throw the numbers out there to see if you all had any advice or if I was missing something.It’s a duplex, electric is separate but gas and water are shared.Purchase Price: 71,000Annual rent: 18,600Annual insurance: 1,200(est.)Taxes: 2,883Garbage: 290Vacancy: 1,860(10%)Maintenance: 1,860(10%)Management: 1,116(6%) 775 placement fee (50% one months rent)Capex: 930(5%)Total: 10,914Annual mortgage: 3,453.6018,600-14,367.60=4,232.40 cash flowUnfortunately management is a must since it is long distance.

Going forward, all payments, maintenance requests, and correspondence should be sent to the address listed at the top of this letter.And then below that it lists other payment methods, how to submit maintenance requests, etc.

I'd also expect that for a property in that price range to incur quite a bit of CAPEX and maintenance costs.  

One of the most common investments I see in SDIRAS is people lending money, secured by real estate. 

This is a common misconception.