For instance, towns that are mainly Republican cowboy types, or only have one real employer and whether or not it's likely for that employer to stay the duration, or can you handle renting to pot heads in the pot growing areas and deal with potentially really high water bills - you just really need to know and understand the affordable areas and the culture and job market or if it's realistic to expect to rent long-term to retirees, what's the healthcare situation, etc., etc., etc.Now, if you do your homework, and spend hours and hours of time researching and traveling there to get a feel and understand them, and you have the ability to really converse with people who may not be the class you're used to, etc., or maybe they don't speak English very well or at all - then you can probably find that you can make a profit.But, anyone who goes into this business expecting to get rich quick without having to do any work is probably going to fail anyway. 

I'm in the minority here, but I prefer not to have a third party vendor handle rent transactions. 

We have a handler that is speaking to the 5 prospective VC's, but they most definitely are going to want to see projects under the new company which at this point we have more or less started. 

It looks like I need to have a wall mounted air handler replaced in a condo and I am wondering if someone knows a good HVAC contractor who does partial replacement and not insists on selling complete systems.

There would be one or two air handlers and condensers.  

For other small Landlords I think the only way they would sign up with with Credit Agencys to do this is if the agencies actually had a e-payment system service offered to landlords that would handle rent payments and include the info on credit history.

But as a long term rental unit the local rental economy can only handle rents in the neighborhood of $1000 to $1200 a month.

@Jake Handler Add me to the list as well!

A good, hefty repair/capex budget is how I handle RE stress lol.

And there is a script for that handler.