Although there was not much I could do by way of prevention, my learned came from the experience and knowledge that I gained from hands on experience.

We'll charge from 1/2 to 1 months rent.We've never considered a security deposit as leverage over a tenant that would prevent them from trashing a place.  

Steve, you would need to review your LLC operating agreement to see if there is anything preventing you from buying portion of the LLC (in most cases this should not be a problem).

But from my experience, nothing that would prevent you from  potentially having a great investment.  

One major thing they are preventing is for us to get good pictures.

Regular inspections would not have prevented it. 

Then, if a circumstance happens in your life - loss of a job, divorce, death in the family, new baby - that prevents you from paying out that cash to support the property, you will be forced to sell or even hand back the keys and lose everything.So, focus on cash flow!

Make sure to document everything in writing to prevent a "lean" being placed on the property. 

Looks like you learned a lot of lessons on this project and I have taken many notes to hopefully prevent me from making the same.  

The neighbor then rushed out of the house worked a deal with the tow truck driver and she ended up paying him 160 dollers to not tow his car...This upset the HOA so they sent us a scathing notice in the mail telling us that it is agianst the HOA policy to interfere with parking enforcement..clearly she didnt prevent the tow truck driver from doing his job didnt interefere with anything other than letting our neighbor know that there car was getting towed.