Overall I think it is a good gameplan.One other option you might consider to scale faster perhaps is to buy the 1st two as owner occupied. 

And as mentioned over and over, the key issue for sucessful out-of-state ownership is a Grade A+ property manager.Of course after a month of flooding in the midwest where my properties are, it does make you really think about it ...

Our grades were many times never a reflection of our interest in a subject, but instead a reflection of the fear that our parents put into us if we did bad.After the last year of our formal education we no longer recieve paper report cards.

The owner told me they'll just "scale the branches back", while the tenant told me "they're cutting it WAY back and if an avocado hits my kid I'll sue her".I love this tree and want it to stay.

Property management unless on a grand scale is a low income tough as nails job..

It seems, however, that buying and renting single or multi-family homes would run into some sort of scaling limit, while larger apartments or commercial properties would, by virtue of their value, necessarily require syndication.

In high school I was a jock, played around and grades weren't a concern even in basic courses, my A's were in music and gym.

Is it mostly cosmetic work, so the drawings just need to be to scale with the appropriate indications of what is being done (i.e., nothing structural and no engineering needed)?

Those activities are typically going to be either totally original, in which case don't share it here ;) or it's going to be something that doesn't scale well and thus doesn't appeal to large concerns.

Per the Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods it's got an A rating.