I was at a wedding this weekend, and was talking with a friend who was working on disposing properties on behalf of a trust for an elderly friend.

It seems the cons are rather obvious (diverting my focus and attention, having to find another network of professionals I can trust, less economies of scale, more travel) and I'm not sure there are a whole lot of benefits.

Went into a joint venture with lots of excitement and trust, but no understanding of the rehab process. 

Lot's can go wrong in a rehab, and you have to have 100% trust in the TK provider's ability to get the work done. 

Hey Patrick,The first thing I would say is that in order to be purchasing 5 rental properties per year, you will need to have an excellent team on the ground ready to follow through with the properties or working with a trusted turn-key property provider.I would maximize your loan opportunity by taking out the highest LTV loan you can get.

There are lots of quantitative metrics ("mainstream" as you say) to observe here (P/E for the S&P - see chart below, margin levels, ratio of total market cap to GDP, etc), & anyone with access to google can see the same numbers.

I trusted when the plumbing & heating company said it wasn't OB, so I didn't have a good feeling when the seller told me he believed it was OB. 

Mix of tenants, increase in rents, occupancy levels, cap rate compression for value in the local market with appraisals, length of primary lease terms, etc.    

This classification seems to be in a bit of a gray area as I am having trouble finding consistent guidance as well as an idea of what is typically enforced both on a federal and local level.

Direct mail has it's place and works well when done consistently and at a high enough level (thousands of mail pieces per month) and more than 5 times to each recipient over a year.