We did a 100% gut/rehab on a 1950's house in 2018 and converted it to a duplex, turned out beautiful, salvaged the original wood floors in parts of the house, put good LVP in the rest, simple plastic mini blinds on every window.

., if I’m dealing with someone in, say, Chicago or Austin, I know precisely which local operators are closing quickly and which boutique lenders are staying nimble.

Should we set up a simple LLC in Ohio? 

I own, manage, and operate out of the Des Moines, Iowa metropolitan area.

For estimating rehab costs, I can send you a simple calculator if you’d like.

I think the problem here is your lumping ALL syndicators, regardless of operational time and quality, into 1 big generalization. 

While I don't have any horror stories, per se, I have heard of people having a tenant for a year then causing $20k in damages upon move out, while skipping town to not be found again (this was a CA buyer buying from a turnkey operator in AL).  

Closing fees won't be any different if they are 4 seperate fee simple properties.

Although instead of knowing about roofs and rehab.. land folks need to know about:Zoningwhere is the power  is there internethow deep are the wells or is its an area that water is super toughDoes it perc. and or how expensive are septic systems.Wetlands Etc.Now if you target land with all city services then its just dead simple.. figure out the retail value and buy below it and do your flip..

I want a successful, long-term operator.