What about cloud storage, such as iCloud if you are an Apple/Mac user. 

@Bryan Milian1- One month of market research on major metro areas2- Two weeks of talking to leading agents in your top 3 markets3- Four weeks of learning the markets4- Offer, offer, offer- stick to fundamentals...long-term buy-and hold small MF (your available cash will be the number one factor in determining what you can afford and what locations you will end up buying in...you'll be comparing apples to apples in your top 3 markets...as long as you have a top agent, you'll be golden)Best of luck 

Seems like using sites such as land.com, landflip.com, landwatch.com, and landcentury.com to find comps is one approach but what if there aren't any apples-to-apples comps? 

I feel like finding good comps is a both a way to see if I might be interested in, or have a deal by doing a rough ARV calculation using price per sq/ft, but also my rehab costs are centered around a solid ARV and I don't want to be mislead by comparing apples to oranges. 

Be careul of those mixing apples & oranges above.You asked what is a typical Placement Fee.

And the underlining assumption is tax treatment differences will make big difference.I own rental properties and invested in syndication and to me, it's comparing apples to oranges.As Tony mentioned, you typically get a large passive loss in MF syndication the first year which offsets your distributions for many years (no tax). with direct ownership, you get to write off all the things OP listed above, so you typically end up with very small or no tax liability (at least in my experience). 

This will make it easier at the end of the year for you to quickly determine what is a business deduction.Accounting Software Recommendations - Quickbooks(Desktop), Quickbooks(Online), Stessa, XeroOnline Storage to save receipts recommendations- Google Drive, Dropbox, Apple DriveExcel - to save information such as tenant name, lease start date, current rent, etc

Just remember there are many people who are good and follow the rules, so don't let one bad apple get you down.

:)A counter point to the statement that all investments are technically out of our direct control - Yes, you are correct, I cannot control Apple, Intel or Amazon, however, if I have a brokerage account containing those stocks, I can certainly reallocate my risk within minutes buy selling/buying, where in a partnership type investment, my money is tied up for a set amount of time.Once again, thank you for posting - I have a lot more to digest and think about, which I am grateful for. 

there’s something I learned about many years ago called “habit stacking”It’s where you find something you already do every day (for this example it’s scrolling thru social while I take my morning shi…uhmmm…while I get ready in the morning), and add the new habit you’re trying to reinforce to the end of what you already do.So I just used Apple’s Shortcut app to create a BP Forum app on my homescreen and put it in my “Social” folder on my home screen.My goal is to post or reply to something every morning!