Joint ventures entail utilizing your own money to buy properties with others.

Buy where you intend to live, where you know the areas best.

Maybe she’s financially illiterate and won’t see what a scam your seller finance offer is, but she did have $100k laying around to buy the property, so probably not. 

What is your current BUY formula for properties in this market?

Then, if you can trend over time you'll want to see where the "path of progress" is going/moving and attempt to buy in that path of progress to gain some appreciation in the future.

@Benjamin Ying1) Waste of time unless you are buying hundreds of units.2) Any option to minimize risk is usually a good idea.3) Always better to visit an area before investing.

Since it is a family member and I would potentially buy the property for under market value.

Prohibiting a landlord from using criminal history prior to a conditional offer.We're seriously considering selling and buying in another state.

I'm an active duty military member and our family has been moving around the country for the past 20 years so we're excited to begin buying some places we can hold onto.

Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?