.- Buyers: Pay close attention to wildly fluctuating mortgage rates, evaluate multiple financing options, and listen to your lender's advice on timing.

I used to have a clause that said very clearly that I was in complete charge of every aspect of the job and the customer was not allowed to bring in their own contractors - unless in a rare case I would allow one if I checked them out carefully and added on my mark-up of 25%.It's not just insurance issues as @Adrian Lemus said, but it just screws up the schedule and gets into 'I said/you said' episodes, plus code issues.I had a customer bring in an alarm company without even telling me once and I arrive one morning to find their employee drilling a hole in a huge beam that we had just installed.

Is there a requirement as far as how many employees you must have (i.e. cleaning employees-room ratio)?

We have a employee designated to the software, so I would not recommend it unless you plan to use it on a large (100+ units per location) scale.

Currently, I am trying to evaluate a strategy to build a portfolio of income properties in the Greater Atlanta Area.This thread is to pick your brains and to get ideas/ feedback for a "general strategy":So far, I have been reading about "buy and hold" and it seems like a pretty straight forward approach.

In our practice, any property 6-units or greater in size is evaluated (cost vs benefit) for fitness to be sub-metered.Once you sub-meter the water, you can hold tenants accountable for their consumption.  

I can guarantee a 900 sf 1940 frame in West Oak Cliff (Dallas County) should be evaluated completely differently than the same house in Iowa Park (Wichita County).There are a number of counties in the Panhandle area that have had auctions recently. 

However, if you see yourself as an "employee" the education may be worth while. 

that might cause the owners to re-evaluate whether they really need 12 cats.....

They may not swing a hammer or show units anymore, but they still have to keep their employees (and we are talking 5-8 employees typically) on task and make tons of financial decisions (like buying carpet by the container load).