Generally though, I break it down into the "five pillars" of protecting your assets.The first pillar is avoiding unnecessary and risky activities (don't drink and drive, insurance generally won’t cover your poor decisions) and take good care of your investments(maintain your property, etc) - these simple steps will help you prevent lawsuits before they even occur.

Here is a short list of some of the ways.Buying a property “subject too”Using an FHA loan to house hack as @Suny Capezzuto mentioned aboveUsing lines of creditCreating a partnershipUsing the BRRRR methodUsing a combination of the BRRRR method along with the lease option strategy and creating 2nd position notes on the front end to help with the rehab and then a 2nd on the back end (after the refinance) to leverage the property to 80% to suck out the rest of your invested capital while maintaining a cash flowing property for yourself and the private money lender/investorThese are just some ways of using 10% or less to buy an investment property.

This is a very small self storage facility, 22 units, and pretty old, block construction from 1965, not maintained at all, but functional, just everything is at the end of its life re: roof not failing, but not far from failing, asphalt failing, doors are rusty, limited places with vinyl siding is falling off, etc. 

Our lease says that a tenant is responsible for all payments until a new tenant is located, so this reduces missed rent payments to the owner.They are also required to maintain utilities until a new tenant takes over.You can’t hold a security deposit without cause.

It was very well maintained because it was bought and restored by english investors.

There will always be a market for well-maintained properties.

Keller suggests that maintaining your network has three touches.1.

I've been individually creating landlord-tenant accounts for each of our units and it's becoming quite a hassle to have to physically go into the banks to create each account.I was told by my banker that I might be able to establish a commercial trust account and create sub-trust accounts to maintain each of the security deposits separately.

Do you need to do the improvements in order to maintain the integrity of the property? 

However, the risk with renting to students is the increased operating expenses that come with constantly maintaining the property which will cut into your cash flow.