I would love to be able to become completely debt free within the next 5-8 years (or less), and then focus on creating some long-term passive income.

My suggestion is to stop looking for a "real" job and start creating your own. 

Here's what I do have:Ethics: I want to create a good home for a deserving tenant...in exchange for positive cash flow. 

A lack of alignment can create a divergence of incentives between the manager and the investor.

You obviously don’t want to over-leverage and over-expand and create unnecessary risk.

It has nothing to do with creating a transfer exempt from taxes. 

In fact- they're dying to have more buyers like you where they can create this pre-order atmosphere and move deals quickly.

I have created a budget for us that I monitor month-to-month.

Now I typically will go to the property and give an estimate, take photos and create a scope of work in the first 3 days, then we revise it when the inspection report comes back, and then we bring in the contractors. 

Second, let's be clear about creating losses from real estate.