I've done enough personal home projects to know, if I find a deck company it'll be 2k, but a GC will charge me 2.5k to over see it...

Personally, my primary residence has appreciated around 6% in market value and I live in Levittown. 

I got a deal on labor as I know the contractor personally and helped out a bit with the project.

I personally own in Racine, and I am expanding my portfolio into Milwaukee. 

We will shop for used appliances where we can when we need one… or pick up used cabinets if we can, or search eBay for something smaller,  but going to the extreme of personally shipping something big in internationally for one-off renovation needs seems like a stretch of reasonable.Just like you mention, the number of unknowns would not seem to be worth it to me.Just my 2 cents.Randy  

I am still personally buying rentals but I am not expecting much in the way of cash flow at the moment.

The challenge was balancing the relationship between landlord/tenant and a personal/friendly relationship.

If you make the person an LLC employee you can get around it, but partner does need to be careful. 

Personal finance is as much behavioral as it is math.

Did you end up flying and looking in person in the area?