I would also focus on smaller deals, single family to 4 unit starting out, so you can establish some experience.

This will allow you to remove the person and do the financing on your own.Home Equity Loan/Line of Credit: Since you're looking to access equity, a home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC) can be a good option.

I personally started in my local real estate market in Columbus Ohio.

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.

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.

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...

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

Quote from @Monish Anand: Start by looking for personal recommendations from investors in that market, then look on realtor.com or a google search.DO NOT use agents suggested by a website like realtor, Zillow, etc.