Maintenance, safety and late payment can hit you simultaneously.

First house was a "duet" where I used a second, simultaneous VA loan (since the CoL is so high here they DO allow it!).

But I have found that being honest and open has consistently been a good practice.

It's the closest thing I know to living practically free.As far as problems between tenants, I haven't really seen a lot of issues in 2-4 plexes.

Forget about funding - you won't be needed when you practice and .learn how to control because you will be assigning your contract for all cash - and FORGET about appraisals and inspection turn-downs because you will be offering your contract (property) in "as is" condition.

What we realized is that we had expectations that we assumed were standard practice.

@Paul Younger do you practice in Izard County?

question, best practice is to put it on Sch E if you own it, Sch C if you don't.

Here in the Northeast, anything built from 1980 and newer is considered practically brand new, 1950 to 1980 is considered "newer",  about 1900 - 1950 is just sort of what you expect, and anything in the 1800s is considered old. 

All theoretical from my perspective as I have just heard and read that, never practiced.