A realtor I took a course from in college always impressed upon us to use an inspector you hire and not the one your realtor suggests.

About Me:- Software Engineer, lots of experience in data collection / analysis.

The action of active management includes advertising and listing the property, screening and placing tenants, as well as collecting the rent and handling maintenance calls.

I thought if I was able to collect all of the rent for some period of time to recoup the rehab costs before I start paying the owner.

If the court kicks them out and you get your houseback w/o any back rent, you can sue them, you can win but collections is another story. 

You will not be able to take deprecation thus will pay taxes on the money you collect.

Here are the questions we asked (I think I got these from a David Greene book but I probably inserted some of my own so take it for what it's worth):What experience they have managing rentals personallyHow many doors their company managesHow long have they been in businessWhat they feel their company’s strengths are.How they collect rentWhat systems they have in place to make things efficientHow long they have worked for their current company.What is the monthly percentage of rent they’ll take?

The current owner goes door to door to collect rent every month but I'm not doing that.

She has already collected rent into her personal bank account.

I guess I could also see the side that if the evicted tenant's debt is headed to collections, then the SD would probably be needed to be applied there first (at least for the tenant's sake in potentially paying it back).