My problem is they want sell to me because I only have 15 square feet of countertop and they want cut granite unless you buy 25ft.

My first thought about real estate was when I was in college, and I realized, geez, if I owned one of these houses, and rented out the other three rooms I could cut the cost of going to school immensely.

I talked to the neighbor,  and he said he cuts the back section of his yard twice a week during the growing season, or the bamboo gets too thick for his mower.  

My employer really wants to keep his custom reports and he also seems excited about the possibility of cutting our software costs.

Not sure this helps a ton since presumably you have a much different space to work with but that's what worked for us and it didn't cut into the other living space down there. 

yes, develop your own standards. use those standards to measure the ones others use....if you want to cut the corner of learning yourself, hire another landlord you trust in the area to tell you what he sees in these properties.

You will also want an undercut saw or sawzaw with long blade for cutting door jambs.

Many simply work by the hour, if so, they should be giving an accounting of their hourly work claimed for billing.Really, a buy and hold for a few properties shouldn't be a difficult matter, it's pretty cut and dry.Steve is probably busy winding up the year, but he can fill you in. :)    

So as soon as I moved away, CA started cutting into most of my cashflow.My word of caution is: You might want to investigate how taxes on the deal will work in both states before jumping into a deal.

It takes years to gain the knowledge and experience necessary to become a professional in any industry/business, so why not cut down your learning curve and use another person's knowledge, skills and contacts to get started sooner rather than later.