Well, it should be hands-off from the standpoint of doing the heavy lifting such as locating property, providing the funds to purchase the property, providing the funds to renovate the property or physically doing any of the labor.  

For Multifamily, here is how I break down my underwriting pro-forma and the expense cost rules of thumb I use:Annual Income:+Gross Potential Rents (Market Rate x Units x 12 months)- Concessions (depends on the market, but I try to limit to 3% GPR)- Economic Vacancy (physical vacancy + bad debt + loss to lease)= Total Rental Income+ Utility Income (based on past RUBs history or the per door flat fees)+ Other Income Items (Laundry, revenue share contracts, late fees, app fees, etc.)= Total IncomeAnnual Expenses:+ RE Taxes (usually use 3% increase over last tax bill, but make sure your area won't reassess immediately upon the sale at the new price, which could drastically increase the taxes)+ Insurance (my rate is about $200/door....yours will be different, talk to your agent)+ Management Fee (3-5% depending on size and company used)+ Administrative costs ($150/door)+ Payroll ($900/door, but the smaller the complex, the higher this cost usually goes)+ Marketing ($125/door, again it depends on the property size and market)+ Utilities (usually do a 3-4% increase over the past 12 month total)+ Repairs/Turns/Contract Services/any maintenance (depends on the age, I buy late 60's to early 70's vintage stuff and usually spend $750-800/unit....this goes down as the property is newer or renovated)+ Reserves (this will depend on your financing, but I place it above the NOI line here because if the bank requires it, it is an upfront expense monthly....usually $250-350/door)= Total ExpensesNOI = Total Income - Total ExpensesThis generally works well for properties 20+, but might not work so well for smaller complexes.

You could investigate as has been suggested, maybe even view their current house, but there are tenants out there that don't need a Sherlock Holmes exercise to straighten out their stories.

If the tenant refuses to move, the constable or sheriff can cause the physical removal of the tenant, all occupants, and all belongings from the leased property.

So we teamed up, (My whole family is in the construction industry) I am doing the physical labor and they are the bank.

If you give free rent for some time period, the place is physically occupied, but not producing any rent.

Of course reviews are important but they won't make you a bestseller.If you have built a following here's how you achieve high sales velocity when selling a book: Offer a 'buy the kindle version and get a physical copy for free' promotion.

There's no substitute for physically driving/walking a neighborhood and personally seeing it's housing inventory when it comes to really learning a place. 

Do you have a property checklist that you use when going over the physical aspects? 

I probably getting overly excited but I figure this could be a good exercise for practice.It's a SFH, one story 2BR/1Bath, build in the 50s on one acre of land in the DC metro area.