If your handy and physically hard working, I'd get a summer/break job in the trades and learn a few things while saving up money. 

Yes, you're missing the underlying appreciation of the house, the value of storing money in a physical asset versus an alternative and capex costs.

So long as you aren't raising rent in retaliation for them exercising their legal rights, such as reporting safety violations, you will be just fine from a legal standpoint. 

If you have never experienced strenuous physical labor in extreme heat, it's very easy to call out mistakes like this.

Physical REI is not a paper investment; almost anyone whose invested on paper numbers I am willing to bet is showing a lot less than the reality of if it unless they took realized gains by selling(into the appreciation rate) or cashed out refi. 

The majority of the others are mailed a check, but we do still have a few contractors who pick up physical checks.I'm also not looking at scaling, I'm just looking at renting this one house.

When Reagan cut the program for some people, he was kicked off the "system", got a job and has worked ever since, gainfully employed, paying taxes, now in retirement collecting Social Security from a system he actually paid in to.There was no physical reason he was collecting social security services "disability" payments, it was a spiritual problem.

I also recommend driving around and physically checking out these neighborhoods. 

LOL I do have remodeling experience so it's just knowing that I probably only have about 10 years left to do physical work. 

There is nothing crazy about buying a $200k home for $175k(no agents) and selling it for 225k on a lease option and collecting on the spread by Option consideration, cash flow(not needed), and cash out when the end buyer exercises his/her option.