thanks everyone I think I might have to do the cash for keys but now I have to figure out a date to do it and the place is well maintained (surprisingly).

@Getachew Hundera,Another source of private lenders is anyone with whom you establish a personal relationship (prerequisite to private lending per the SEC) who would consider investing in your deal.Essentially, it could be anyone who is nervous about the risk and volatility of the stock or other markets and is looking for a safer investment secured by real property.Learn how to attract and engage private lenders other than your family and your current friends and associates.

So, in the quest of finding opportunities and trying to make sense of what niche is better suited for my passive style of investing (which I see myself as), I came across this GC who does everything, even maintain books.  

—In all criminal cases, contempt cases, and other cases filed pursuant to this chapter, if a party has sold, leased, or let real estate, the title to which was not in the party when it was offered for sale, lease, or letting, or such party has maintained an office bearing signs that real estate is for sale, lease, or rental thereat, or has advertised real estate for sale, lease, or rental, generally, or describing property, the title to which was not in such party at the time, it shall be a presumption that such party was acting or attempting to act as a real estate broker, and the burden of proof shall be upon him or her to show that he or she was not acting or attempting to act as a broker or sales associate.

It is more secure and means that they cannot lock themselves out since they always need a key to lock the door.This is a problem you have to fix today so you need to install whatever Home Depot or such have in stock, but I have finally seen the light and am switching to Landlordlocks iCore locks.

Please feel free to respond to any/all of them, along with other pieces of advice you can share: - Even though the house is in me and my wife's name, we don't want to maintain liability and are considering rolling this project into an LLC.

I'd only take on a property that is similar to what I work with - (rents above $600 and in what I term a decent area and a well maintained house)   Also there is Granite Leasing/Property Mgmt - Kristen used to be active on here but not sure she is anymore - Im actually going to be working with her to lease my vacant property - her specialty is finding tenants and doing all the work on the front end then either managing on the back end or passing off back to the owner or someone else for the day to day.

The problems with the UPS PO box are 1) It can only be accessed when the UPS store is open. 2) It would require intervention of the UPS staff to put it in your box, which could create discrepency if a payment comes up missing, especially if the tenant says the payment was cash.  3) It's only one location which may not be convenient to all your tennats, esp if you are talking about low income whomay use publish transportation. 4) A receipt cannot be given.We've even come up with a way to note "received with reservation" on the 7-11 receipts for those tenants our law requires us to do this for in order to maintain possession that the court has granted us.  

If you want to take things a step further, focus on one tenant and learn everything you can about their business operations/stock performance, site selection criteria, preferred developer network, lease structure(s), cap rate trends, etc.  

That is where you already have the most knowledge, contacts, and experience ... that is where you will be able to learn the most hands on to grow all of these things ... that is where you will be able to maintain maximum control over your investments ... that is where you will be most able to assess and manage your risks.