I just stumbled upon it online and I’m trying to research it myself. 

The site looks like it came back online and it's stunning. 

They are legit - USA Today had a pretty great article about them online.

Contrary to what I read online my lender never questioned the condition of the property.

We use Quickbooks Online for our main accounting software.  

Also check out Landlord-friendly online Banks like Baselane.

The photos online won't be of much use to you as the photos where the money spend is at are in the basements, attics, and the exterior of the house, and every corner of those if that helps.

Look up the default risk by credit score, this information is readily available online. 

Quote from @Diana Teng: Hi all,I think my question above is pretty direct.I'm interested to buy my first rental property, and after doing a brief search I see that there are quite a number of places out-of-state (I live in NY state)  that offer affordable homes that deem to be in hot market areas right now (according to many different articles online). 

@Andrew Moresi I have been looking around, I found a couple promising properties online and am also in contact with a realtor.