@Jared Feldman I'd encourage you to read Cashflow Quadrant (it's the follow up to Rich Dad, Poor Dad).

So now we have to decide which contract would best fit the situation.I spoke with a couple of attorneys who recommend a JV partnership to help protect him and split the profits 50/50, and they encouraged him to start an LLC, but I don't want to make him do extra work if he doesn't have to.

However I wouldn't mind talking to one, just didn't necessarily want to waste their time as I'm still just soaking in all the information for now, hopefully not too much longer, aiming to get one property before the year end.In either case, thank you for the encouragement, definitely helps!

Closing in an LLC (commercial loan) vs closing in your personal name/conventional loan is something that I would encourage you to look at.

It also depends on how old the property is.........It also depends on what your PM is doing to drum up business.....If you have a PM that "encourages" tenants to put in maintenance requests....the tenants will do it, because the tenant doesn't pay for those requests. 

Material means dollars, quality, meaningfully improved service, etc. 

(There's plenty of other posts on BP about those types of arrangements, and here's some additional reading too if you're interested: https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/can-landlord-require-first--100-of-any-repair-paid-437564.html.)For what it's worth, I don't personally like those type of arrangements because I feel it encourages tenants not to call for repairs since they know it's going to cost them money. 

And possibly a small percentage.All of these ideas from everyone are very encouraging/thought provoking for me.

However, as you can tell from the PPT, the home prices are very modest, and I have a pretty high income, so I could weather some rough times if needed.Any advice or encouragement is appreciated.

I mean, I don't want to encourage you to do something stupid!