If you simply include water and garbage in your monthly rent they will not pay any attention to how much they waste.Once I made the transition it saved me several hundred dollars a year per unit.

Showing on time is not important, if you make it early, you'll have more networking time, that's all.Do not assume that a REIA (or in our case simply a networking group) focuses solely on the geography in which it is located. 

Here is California, if you form an LLC the State Franchise Tax board requires an annual $800 tax simply for existing, albeit if one is in business, one can expects expenses.

Are you buying a deed to the property, or are you simply paying the taxes and getting a tax lien certificate?

You are simply an interested investor.  

It includes a role playing transaction between Will and I that we tried off the cuff about 5 years ago and bombed big time....LOLOther than that, you can now have live chat on the Principals of RE, investor transactions and Notes for only $29.94 simply by sending me your debit/credit card number for the Biggerpockets Chat Education Class

I have implemented both philosophies simply by going through the debt snowball in my personal finances but using leverage(debt, or others people's money) for investments. 

I suggest you make contacts simply by talking about what you might do, such as I'm interested in being a private lender, what do I need to do?

Well, in regard to the repairs and such, I'd simply forfeit the idea that you need to make repairs such as a hole kicked in a wall by your tenant's kid for $25, and realize that whatever it takes to repair it, it doesn't matter since you would be passing the cost on to your tenant.

The businesses that compete for these simply switched the owner to the spouse.