It's a whole giant pile of work, make sure that he maintains the properties, and ask him about his operation.

Finally, what are the pros/cons of duplexing down a garden unit and renting out one giant unit?

TBD offers are not able to be processed through an AUS system, nor does it mean a thing when a lender issues an approval of any kind on a TBD basis.  

I do owe it to those who did write blogs (not books): notably the madfientist, jimcollinsnh, and of course, the famous mrmoneymustache. 

That is certainly true for someone who is not able to or does not want to handle the day to day operation.  

Half of the email is a giant blue box and at the bottom in a tiny font is the actual info about the post.  

I could give you horror stories of ways that these teams fouled up their own margins by recording the wrong rights with the wrong legal descriptions... or by taking all their rights, getting a giant cross-collateralized Mortgage across them all (over 300 assets!)

But not able to re-rent for 5 years afterwards right? 

They made a great argument: the fact that the LL shut off services means you (tenant) were not able to accurately check the condition of appliances and furnaces.

But if you want to hob-nob with the world elite, being tops in your class at an ivy-league school is the way to go.Since I didn't attend an ivy-league school, I'm not able to comment on the validity of ivy-league alternative.