The other end is dryers, really simple to repair and relatively light to move.

That's a big house to sell as a single family, especially given the fact that the common rooms (living, kitchen, etc) would be very small in scale for such a relatively large house.So for me, I dont not do this. 

You dont need these entites to deduct all the expenses related to your rentals.

As another side note, I have a very stable, non real estate related job, but am looking for opportunities to take a more active role in the real estate industry.

The last tenants were neighbor-from-hell, drunk & drugged out, criminal trespassers who habitually abused my property during all-night parties with numerous friends and relatives.

Hello all, relatively newbie here!

It is not particularly close to the main hospital or the university.I do think of it as a pretty stable area that is relatively safe for an investment.

Been an owner for 4-5 years, learned quite a few things already, among which is that a commercial kitchen is not something to be made or modified lightly - it has to be properly designed and properly made in order to function well.So I have this retail store of about 1100 sqft that someone wants to take for a small coffee shop with the ability to bake.My question is where do I start searching for someone to design/compute small walk-in cooler, grease trap, vent-a-hood, stove and HVAC on top of that so all this could become useable without anyone getting burned.From my past experience I have local mexican crews who can do any and all of the listed things and they'd do them relatively well except they won;t ever be designed to actually work well together.On the other end of the spectrum I've worked with american general contractors and they tend to cost 2-3 times the Mexican crews and, at least in my case, ended up delivering about same end result (in all fairness it was only kitchen remodeling, not design from ground up; but statement stands valid and I was able to later do almost the same at literally third of the cost).Your expertise is appreciated.

In relation to this...4. 

Today prices are relatively high, so hedging on appreciation above inflation rates in the long term is not a wise idea.