So here are pros and cons of managing yourself.Pros:  you keep all profits (except 3% to credit card company), get to know guests, create a rapport with regular guests, make it personalized and memorable for your guests (my housekeeping staff was great and would leave flowers for anniversaries and balloons for bdays)Cons: Phone calls late at night sometimes, dealing with guests who are nasty and ignore your rules (ie no pets/no smoking, but it's nice having damage waiver in place), trial and error finding right housekeeping/maintenance/HVAC/plumbing people.Going with a property management company pros and cons:Pros:  they deal with all the issues and reservations callsCons: they may not be as attentive to your property as you would be and don't follow through with rules of no pets/no smoking.

David show me a politician in the United States who hasn't excepted bribes!!

Except, instead of using CL, I just ask friends if they know anyone who would like to make a few bucks hauling trash to the dump. 

I've decided to stop taking cash  Fair Housing regs forbid this - - the LL must take payment in any form offered.I never use receipts except on move-in for the deposit and 1st month's rent.Being a remote LL, cash is not an option. 

Especially the math is fun one that popped up as you use the NPV-Net Present Value to get your IRR- the internal rate of return.At any rate you say the purchase price is $1,600,000 for 16 units which is $1m per unit-the NOI is $181,000/12=$15,083 per month income after all expenses except these here. 

I realize that $5000 is not a lot for a three-family investment, but that coupled wtih no information whatsoever about the property's roof, systems, etc. makes me anxious.My issues are:I am taking on existing leases that I cannot change until they end.I am taking on tenants that I know nothing about and did not screen.I have no information about the condition of anything, except what I could see during the walk through, and they want to limit my walk-away amount during inspection to anything over $5,000. 

You may want to run your numbers if you have to rent it out by the month, at least 30 days and see if the deal still makes sense.This was my personal case with my property in SF and I no longer can do Air bnb except for corporate housing.

The point here is because the standard real estate contract is so widely used in the industry it makes it a widely excepted contract to facilitate real estate transactions.

.): The distance from the property line of the front and side walls, porches, and exterior features of any proposed new construction must be compatible with the distance from the property line of similar elements of existing contributing structures in the context area.The exterior features of new construction must be compatible with the exterior features of existing contributing structures in the context area.The scale and proportions of the new construction, including the relationship of the width, overall height, eave height, foundation height, porch height, roof shape and roof pitch, and other dimensions to each other, must be compatible with the typical scale and proportions of existing contributing structures in the context area unless special circumstances, such as an atypical use, location or lot size, warrant an atypical scale and proportions.The height of the new construction must not be taller than the typical height of existing contributing structures in the context areas unless special circumstances , such as an atypical use, location or lot size warrant an atypical height, except that:a.design guidelines for an individual historic district may provide that a new construction with two stories may be constructed in a context area with only one-story contributing structures as long as the first story of the new construction has proportions compatible with the contributing structures in the context area, and the second story has similar proportions to the first story; andb.

However there are always exceptions and if you are active enough you can "luck into" good on-market deals too.