Not to mention its illegal for Real estate agents to pay referral fee's to non licensed persons

In your particular case, if there are only 2 parties, you could, potentially, be best served by having a partnership (as opposed to the typical GP/LP structure). 

Add something similar to this to your lease:The Tenant covenants that he/she will not allow refuse, garbage or other loose or objectionable material to accumulate in or about the house and/or yard of the said properties and will at all times keep the said premises in clean and wholesome condition.At that point it becomes a fairly generic notice of breach, detailing section number, timeline to remedy, & consequences if non-compliant.

*Provide information about rental rates and other terms and conditions of the rental, as set out in a schedule provided by the owner, and*Accept deposits, fees for credit checks, and other administrative duties, security deposits, and rent*Provide preprinted rental applications and respond to applicants’ inquiries about the application*Show rental units to prospective tenantsAs you can see, a non-licensed, non-resident manager is limited to performing rather routine tasks that don’t call for initiative or decision making.For instance, this manager would not be qualified to negotiate a lease (4), deal with late rents or other violations of the rental agreement or lease (5), or appear in court on your behalf (6).(1) My property manager does NOT live on any of the owners properties.(2) My property manager is unlicensed.(3) My property manager supervises 10 different properties.(4) My property manager has negotiated leases for 12 years without a license.(5) My property manager has dealt with late rents and violations.(6) Unknown

I try and keep the leftover paint at that particular rental and touch up as necessary. 

@Marcel K. that's a really broad question and really depends on the strengths and weaknesses of your particular market, skillset, and knowledge. 

I don't have a particular property in mind, hoping for a 'rule of thumb,' so to speak, that I could apply to future properties. 

I am looking into first creating a non-profit for purposes of acquiring, rehabbing distressed housing; then renting out rooms to seniors/55+

Nowadays I prefer an asset based lender who will lend on a percentage of the purchase price (usually 80-85%) if it makes sense for that particular deal. 

@Eric Fernando You should start by looking at the county property appraiser website and check out the neighborhood and the zoning for that particular property.