Is it a common practice to do this? I recently read a blog article by a real estate agent I follow and he said that he owned 7 houses on one small street, owning nearly all of them (there are 11 in total) and he rents them out. I think if you can manage to own an entire street of homes, it would likely make the job of maintenance a lot easier to handle.
I don't work with buying properties personally but my uncle owns an entire street of homes. The taxes are outrageous so you have to ensure you charge rent accordingly.
I would love to be able to do this if I worked in the business of rentals. I heard of someone in a state, I am not sure which, but he won the lottery and bought his close friends and family each a home on the same street so they can stay close together.
It would probably be more common if it was something people could do but like mentioned, in most cases you stumble on this by chance or you have enough money to interest people to sell their homes.