I was confused by the $2500 deductible part, I thought you were having to pay the deductible on your home insurance policy which didn't make sense to me.

Do they know they make zero sense?

If they used all their initial money to buy the place then they are back at zero, have very little equity in the property, and are only cash flowing a few hundred a month, that's not enough to go buy another property in just a few months. 

If you have high quality properties with high-quality tenants your management time will be almost zero so there is no need to decrease your profitability by hiring a manager. 

I would also advise you hold a General Liability policy, it will be relatively cheap becuase it is a low risk policy.

We try to ensure the salt is applied enough to keep down dangerous/slippery ice and to keep the snow melted, but we don't want to go overkill having a "zero tolerance" ice policy like hospitals have, we just want to keep snow and ice down to an acceptable and safe level, without going over-budget.For some of our buildings where salt seems to be really deteriorating surfaces (mainly building sidewalks and masonry stairs) we thought about using a different product (either calcium chloride or magnesium chloride) however while they are less damaging than pure salt, they are also more expensive (something we are trying to avoid).What do you other landlords do that have midsize (10+ unit) buildings? 

When you get into larger (5+ units), mixed use, renovation, vacant buildings, etc. they will need to access commercial policies.  

They likely have a policy that only one vendor is approved, because they know the quality of work and it guarantees consistency.

My question is this:  If I buy a property from an owner who has had the property for 30 years, he / she has already depreciated it to zero. 

Just get an umbrella insurance policy until you grow your portfolio large enough.