Additionally, please share if this was a scam or not.

You’ve already got a solid foundation—understanding market trends, deal structuring, and negotiations will give you a great head start.I would recommend focusing on learning one niche at a time.

➡️Harness the power of branding and marketing.

You're in a strong rental market, and house hacking a small multifamily in Phoenix is a smart way to build wealth.

This deal was brought us off-market by a friend.

Hey All, I'll be traveling to Costa Rica for a wedding and wanted to explore the market while I'm visiting.

I agree with the others here that say you need to have some skin in the game, if you are going to live there yourself, get an FHA loan rather than owner financing, you can get a 3.5% down loan, personally I do not love these as they require  PMI which is an additional expense, and you also need  bring additional funds for closing at least for taxes, title, attorney and transfer fees . borrowing from anyone else for the down payment, to include a personal loan from the bank is not a good idea, those again will be higher int. rate.

In this I hope that I can link with someone that can provide more insight into the local market.

Also, confirm market rents support your investment.

I can do financial modeling with you and talk to other new build investors it's a slow growth plan. build directly at 25% below the market and also identify land too. increase unit counts and get better economies of scale. single family homes will never perform like a three story walk up apartment. we build a stacked triplex in Columbus Ohio with a picture below, if you are set on Dallas look at land prices and see if the economics help.