At that point I stopped buying homes and went into a kind of hibernation mode as the property values tanked and desperately just trying to keep everything afloat.Fast forward to today.

You have to know the area and make sure the demand is there.

The demand in my area seems to be at the 2k-4k sq ft range.

my sister had renter out a house for some time and she said it was an absolute headache and people would call her over stupid simple things at ridiculous times of the day and in her opinion she doesn't recommend it also I talked to a guy who's family owns a six unit apartment and he said the city made up a lie about the building having a slow leak somewhere and demanded $10.000 payment (weter bill) his opinion real he would not recommend real estate rental property.

The brewery is on track to be able to almost replace my "day-jobs" income within 2 to 3 years.The crux of my issue is that time is the new commodity which seems to be shortest in demand.

Hi Aaron - interestingly I find myself in a position where I have a demand to set something like that up here in Canada. 

Some of the repairs here may make sense to pass off onto Sister since that may not mean a monthly demand for payment but can be managed and saved up for and then deployed.  

(how solid is the economy, what is the demand, what are other properties seilling for, etc.) 

This is, unfortunately, a business that is full of folks who prey on desperate people.  

They will continue to be used so long as there are investors who purchase them and do not demand a higher standard of instrument such as a mortgage or deed of trust properly executed, recorded and maintained.