Maybe I just need to come in at a higher dollar figure to make it worth it, I have been wanting to buy one or two notes to start with and get a feel for how much it would cost me to liquidate a property in the event of default.

Just as you don't want to move as your friends are there, he may not want to move for the same reasons.If there are 5 of you going in on this (well 4 if you and your wife are combining your money for 25% of the costs), you need to talk to a lawyer about the 'what ifs'.  

He is facing a big repairing cost right now.My questions is can I ask all my applicants to disclose if they have pets including service pets when they apply?

It's not horrible every time, but I would estimate 1 out of 20 rental situation resulted in a bad tenant, case manager, accounting errors, etc.

Who paid the $20,000 original cost of the home? 

Keep separate accounts for real estate income and costs.

On paper this may look like an obvious solution, however, in practice it can cause more challenges (cost) than it saves for most situations.

The property hasn’t pulled in a lot to cover the cost but for safety I can manage fixing some within budget. 

I did not do this with two partnerships and one ended in a lawsuit and the other cost me tens of thousands of dollars.

For cost effectiveness we are using Citizens but he has several options to choose from.