Cold calling, mailers, signs, google/Facebook, RE meetups, RE agents are all ways a whole sales would find deals

It didn’t seem like a big deal to just leave it.

depends on your credit if you can get a mortgage or your ability to find good deals that you use hard money for and then refinance into DSRC.  

I have lived in Truckee for over 23 years and understand the pain you can go through dealing with a local government where the answer you received on Monday is different than the answer you receive on Tues, Wed, Thur & maybe even Friday if anyone is working.

I can buy a 2-4 unit with 20% down vs conventional can only buy a 2-4 INVESTMENT property with 25% down 4. there are options where DSCR loans dont repot to personal credit, helps in not having to show a bunch of paperwork or not one person in a partnership has to carry the debt5. way less paperwork to close on this loan type vs a conventional loan. we care about the income of the property you're buying and it's ability to service the debt of the property whether we use long term rents income, lease income, or air dna/bnb income.6. easily buy in partnerships, add people to your operating agreement, its as easy as that so bring partners into a deal. helps with scaling and raising capital or getting partners involved7. gift funds allowed to close on these as well, and like I said earlier, there's only a 10day seasoning period of funds with some lenders so that means you can literally have a private money lender deposit money into your account 11 days before closing, and you can use those funds to close!

This means you need to pad your rehab costs, make sure you have trusted service providers that do great work, and when you run comps be sure to bring them down a bit and see if the deal still makes sense. 

But, there are still deals that can make sense depending on your budget. 

Could be the best money you spend on the deal!

What is the best way to find plumbers and handymen who work for themselves and would run over to deal with things, and perhaps have a key that they can use to get in if the tenant is not there?

You reference taking out a HELOC and those are generally provided when the property is in your personal name, which I don't recommend for investment properties.Overall, it sounds as if you're tired of dealing with "long distance" ownership.