I'm sure todays electronic payment systems reduce that somewhat. 

Just can't decide whether to buy a place to reduce monthly housing expence or go offensive and buy a rental to increase income.

@Zhi Li I hear ya but just reducing your capital to get into a deal isn't necessarily going to make bad deals good deals.

Building a team also reduces the overall workload on yourself and each party which allows individuals to play to their strengths and mitigate weaknesses. 

The rent in 2019 exceeded 4% of the purchase cost (2020 was Covid impacted so had significantly reduced rent). 

Does anyone have or know of contact/company that will come out and point out water leaks and provide solutions, something like the "water scrooge". Something to trim down my water bill for a 4 unit property? 

Commercial lenders are wayyy lower-doc and more painless, and pricing/rates has actually improved with commercial lenders, where Fannie and Freddie have recently decided to reduce their Investment portfolio, causing their rates to rise a little for investment properties.

Also, if you go HELOC route, make sure you ask whatever lender/bank you are going with if they ever reduce or even pull the line at their own discretion, which is something they can do with a HELOC. 

I want to reduce my federal income tax to zero.

I have not had any leads, so 2 weeks ago I reduced the price to $1500 and still nothing.