This website can be be an excellent source of information.  

The family member has stated that they will be paying the rent to us directly, and they have excellent credit, income and low debt.Any advice on whether I should consider the tenant?

You have some excellent questions, but I feel like I need some more information?

If the tenant was a long term tenant with no blemishes in the past with me and my finances are excellent then we'll sit down and talk for a while to get a good understanding of what is going on and how we can help each other IF we can at all..

Here is an excellent link I found that goes into great detail about the land trust.

IMO, the extra 400 for you will not only be appropriate for the type of tenant you wish to attract in that neighborhood, but will probably spare you some headache down the road on repairs because of their excellent reliability and warranty.Here's some links (I am not affiliated) WasherDryer

Excellent!

Bill, excellent reply.

Part of my hesitance to dip into Oakland, given prices today.good luck though, and be careful if you're going to take action against your tenant without excellent legal advice.

I have some property that I own and have some property that is owned by others, but I manage.I have been using Excel for management and finally feel I need RE management software and RE analysis software.