If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.Also as an FYIThe most popular markets for out of state investing are Cleveland, OhioToledo, OhioMemphis, TennesseeBirmingham, AlabamaKansas City, MissouriIndianapolis, Indiana Detroit, MichiganEach of these markets is popular with turnkey investors because of the low barrier to entry, high rental demand & high rent to price ratio.

If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

This first inquiry will cost you in points as a hard inquiry, but after that first one supposedly the rest will not adversely affect your score.

Once I partner with someone / raise the capital for a down payment, I feel I will have overcome a big hurdle in acquiring my first deal! 

Please share how you overcome this issue or guide me if I am not thinking through this correctly.

Thank you for describing not only the good points but also the maintenance issues or tenant  problems.I liked reading your story of overcoming the issues as they appeared.

Being a foreign national, I realise that there is some red tape that I need to overcome; 1) Such as creating a bank account (which I read only two banks offer to create accounts for foreign nationals and I must come to America to create it). 1.1) I've also read that I should open a business account to pay less taxes.

If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.

You will also want to check into how long they’ve been using the driveway as there could be an issue of adverse possession (just google adverse possession if you’re not familiar with the term).

If it's like a standard throwaway language, I would say it probably wouldn't adversely affect someone like @Paul T.