I work as a field property claims adjuster and I have experience in estimating restoration damages on jobs of low to moderate complexity as well as extremely complex claims up to 100k+. 

well first off this being a landlord site.. and a positive cash flow site generally speaking.. most will tell you are nuts to buy this.however if you can get the property to just about break even maybe lose 100 a month or so and you have a prime Socal asset that someone else is paying off your mortgage and you think rents can go up a little.and you can EAISLY self manage based on quality of the unit .. incredible tight rental market.. that mitigates a lot of land lord issues.I mean whats the alternative you go 1000 miles away to make 100 or 200 a month.. is that positive cash flow going to change your life..is 100 a month negative going to change your life.now this is an extreme.. but i owned a home in Palo Alto that i chose to sell back in 91 because it would have been 300 a month negative.. well that negative within 36 months would have been positive.. and i sold for 500k and today that home is worth 3 million.... and once it got positive it probably would have been positive up to 2 to 3k a month coming into the 2010's.... and someone else would have paid for my home.. plus grade A tenants at all times.. being prime Palo Alto.so thats one extreme.. its really only in low to no appreciating markets with tougher tenant bases that turn a bunch that positive cash flow becomes more acute or for those that want to one day live on their cash flow and be in the business of landlording.. thereby acquiring 50 to 100 doors. 

Feels like there's a soft agreement between this couple and the owner.I spoke with all other tenants privately and they seem to be very happy with the current non-property-manager.I like the idea of resident lawn care, but am concerned about legality of a resident property manager (I'm new to this and not ready for employees on a small triplex).

Any information or advice would be extremely helpful.

After my last trip I have to admit the concerns outweigh the benefits and I am going to sell the boat up here and use the money as down payment on another rental.  

As both @Dustin P. and @Doug McVinua have stated the communities around Chandler (Gilbert, Mesa, Queen Creek, San Tan, Tempe) are just as good from an investment perspective.There has been a lot of press concerning future job growth both in Tech and Manufacturing in the East Valley. 

That cost isn't really what one should concern them self with when looking at starting one for the purpose of owning their rental properties tho.

I’ve been a real estate agent and investor for over a decade and have only had this come up on a handful of occasions and prior till today no one has detailed out the rules to me  personally.These rules concern a fairly narrow set of circumstances that many investors will not encounter until it’s causing a problem, so no I don’t consider it common knowledge outside of lending circles.Not being able to sell a home for a profit for 90 days is from my perspective a fairly arbitrary guideline.  

You're allowed to do work for it yourself, as far as the IRS is concerned it's you. 

Maybe I will just have to spend a weekend in one of the cities.kson Wu  You basically summarized all of my concerns about the SGV into a few paragraphs.