Personally I choose to pay a professional to do lawn care + snow removal + semi-annual clean ups, as relying on a tenant for something other tenants are involved with can prove to be difficult.

There are annual fees with the custodians of self directed IRAs.

I can get 10% annual return by lending, and I'm 1st position on the loan and have ~25% protective equity.

I have a small business that does about 400k in revenue annually. 

You purchased 3 to 4 years ago and have experienced $145K to $150K appreciation (I suspect with either a 80% or 75% LTV) and you are cash flowing $300/month (which I am surprised it is only $300/month as rents have risen on average more than $100 per month annually).Lets go with the lower LTV (75% LTV) and go with $112K plus closing costs (note higher LTV would have meant less invested). 

The taxes went up $400 which in one post you indicate is a month but it has to be annual of which you expected some increase.

Since dirt doesn't get any worse, you can't use depreciation on that.When you make upgrades, you'll need a cost segregation guy to certify what sort of schedule (ie the number of years) you can add them to your annual depreciation. 

Offhand, in my 4-unit, washer/dryer proceeds pay around 70% of the water/sewer/garbage annual bill.  

Your FI number is based on a simple calculation: do you have 25 times your annual spending budget in broad-based stocks and bonds index fund investments?

I raise all my rents annually, we are under rent control but if not I would raise them a minimum equal to the annual cost of living index.