All you need are local vendors you know...with texting and internet, and good tenants.  

In the end, people rely on internet for all sorts of things and you want that to be reliable.

They have bots that look for every piece of furniture on the internet, create a listing for it, and then have it shipped if you buy it (often at a 2-3X markup). 

Therefore, remote investing is your only option if you do not live in a city that meets all these requirements.Regarding your concern about not being able to visit the city: You likely won't discover much more during a week-long visit than what you can learn from the internet in a few hours.

The flaw in velocity banking is how guru present it on the internet.

I was in the military in the mid 90s, a slightly different time with zero Internet information and the world was very active.

Like a calculator to simulate this strategy (https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/61/topics/795487-retire...), maybe showing how much equity could be pulled out of which property when, whether the portfolio would still cash flow, etc.

I suggest like one of those Canadian get-aways where it's awesome fishing, water sports, and no internet or cell reception. 

They will have better knowledge of what you need and how to do it then just finding one on the internet. 

tried real estate investing many years ago, before the internet era.