But there's an obstacle, even a veil, between an understanding of what the life of a versatile residential handyman in 2020 is like and the lives of academics and people who for one reason or another never touch this kind of work.Would I call fixing up houses and DIY landlording a passion?

I see things all over the place that need doing - cleaning up parks, providing child care, sitting with the elderly, etc - and there is surely a value to society that every person can provide short of being in a vegetative state.

Regarding inflation... actually only vegetable and salad still has no inflation.while the Korean BBQ joint that I usually visited, raise the price from $22 to $39 just like that.

It's just very versatile.

Also, Puget Sound weather means vegetation grows like crazy relative to dryer climates like SD, for example.

Which reminds me, I have a couple trees that need to go in my rentals.Also, you live in (western) WA - lol - I live in WI - we both know there is no real need for more vegetation!!!

@Shawn WestbrookPower sawsPower miter saw and circular saw are pretty versatile.

I always embed hardware cloth into the hole for good measure before foaming it.If you catch one in a glue board, you can use vegetable oil to free it once outside without harming it.I've always used the snap traps with PB as @Victor S. suggests, but the most important thing is to find their means of access and block that. 

Property is versatile posied pretty well for STR’s and long term hold I feel given the location.The investor group seems to be streamlining into new construction and flipping / selling from what I gather (lots of properties on market now and new construction projects in development, I think the selling agent mentioned they had 400+ SFH in portfolio currently they are trying to sell off and transition more so into new construction and large scale apartment complexes) and have own separate businesses in the HVAC / Roofing / flooring world etc.I think my take away here is that I need to get my hands on the previous inspection to see what came up and check it off.

As crazy as it seems Ford used vegetable oil during the production of their wire insulation a few years back.