This is what I do:123 Straight St - Fourplex  - COMMON AREA     - 2020-01-20 Inspection     - 2020-06-21 Landscaping damage     - 2020-07-10 Laundry room and hallway trashed     - 2020-07-30 Laundry room and hallway painted and cleaned     - 2020-10-06 Inspection  - UNIT A     - 2020-01-20 First marketing pictures     - 2020-02-01 Johnson-Smith move in     - 2020-07-10 Johnson-Smith inspection     - 2021-01-29 Johnson-Smith out     - 2021-02-15 Jacobs move in  - UNIT B  - UNIT C2965 Narrow Way Ave - SFH  - 2016-06-01 First marketing pictures  - 2016-07-05 Walker moves in  - 2016-10-01 Inspection and violations  - 2016-10-15 Inspection and corrected violations  - 2016-12-06 Walker abandoned  - 2017-01-20 After renovations  - 2017-02-10 Owens-Kirkhoff move inThe problem with the method above is there's no clear structure for documents, so you may want to try something different:PROPERTY   - UNIT A      - PHOTOS         2020-01-02 After renovation and marketing         2020-02-15 Smith before move-in         2020-06-10 Dog damage to lawn      - DOCUMENTS      - LEASES         - JOHN AND PATTY SMITH         - JANE DOE AND ROBERT BLACKWELLI probably prefer this option over the former for a small landlord.

Repaired water damage, took out dog odor, replaced all floors, water heater, radon mitigation, finished the washer/dryer/storage room, Keypad lock, Ring doorbell, all new paint, doorknobs, repaired deck.

Just get familiar with the process and understand that some deals will be dogs while others will end up being stellar opportunities. 

Board the windows, reinforce the doors, beware of dog signs, be on site, etc. 

In California that is what a dog house would cost. 

We just can't do what I see many people do and rent rooms in the house due to have a child and 2 dogs.

If you can add something of value to others (marketing, bird-dogging, crunching numbers, picking up materials, etc.) then they'll exchange knowledge for your labor. 

BTW, my comment about 'buyer drool' in the above link from 4 years ago still stands.

Made an in person visit to a duplex in San Antonio that we were getting ready to sell and low and behold, the bathroom floor was rotted out due to a leaky toilet the tenant never reported and the other unit was running a dog breeding business. 

When we first bought our rental property, before we switched utilities over to the tenants, we had a tenant that kept the window open for a few hours everyday so her dog could have fresh air in the middle of winter.