The fact is I am starting to meet more coaches than active wholesaler,flippers etc In my business I am an active buyer of properties and source wholesaler thru local meetups reia meetings etc In every meeting their is a dozen people like you who want to learn and even more coaches who want to teach.

I would throw caution at giving credibility to news stories about rates driving people out of Florida or increased natural disasters impacting rates.

I found out about the state of the lawn through a friend that did me the favor to drive to the property to check it out.

I'm looking into potentially house hacking a small multi-family home, preferably in northern NJ (such as Morris county) or Westchester, NY if possible, but I'm open to other areas that are hopefully within about 1.5 hours (driving or public transit) of Manhattan.

Or perhaps most likely, the seller will counter your offer with a higher price or different “terms”.  

Most Hard money lenders are going to require 20% of cost so if you have that plus reserves then that is by far the best bet.If this Is for real and they are not just trying to get a thousand bird dogs to pay them a 795 up front fee for their inspector they probably pay 100 bucks to drive out and look at and fund very few deals ( like many mortgage scams) .. then these can be pretty nice set ups for you to gain experience and build your resume'I would also hit Mark off line he is a very experienced licensed Broker in that area and one who knows the investor side of the coin

I have a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry/Quantum Dynamics... https://pubs.aip.org/aip/jcp/article/142/24/244112/74387 ... and I literally designed and built my own house off of 30A in Florida ... https://www.scenicsir.com/homes/242-Blue-Gulf-Drive/Santa-Ro... ....

You can buy something like a cheap Arlo camera system at Costco and pay for the Internet connection in one of your units.You could ask law enforcement to do routine drive-bys or safety checks.

It's rough in the way that they have let their kids draw all over the walls and the kitchen counters are from the 80's.

Most folks would prefer to drunk drive home from the games unfortunately.