I am married to a successful interior designer who serves luxury clients but can work with me to make rental properties look great for half the cost with her knowledge of what makes the most impact.

Come to find out his wife's dad had a career in real estate, his friend works at a firm as a private lender (that's how he got started), the houses were 50k houses and half of them were trailers...His personal house, while large was in the middle of nowhere...You can see the focus shifted from real estate investing to social media marketing.

I’m in one state half the year and In another the other half.

now, I’m wondering if it’s a scam 🙃 he’s in my house 100s of miles away and I don’t know what’s going on here. 

For at least half of nearly forty years life I've lived and invested in property within a block or short walk to the beach in South Florida, Southern California, Southern Oregon and Northern Baja Mexico. 

Versus my last rehab an added half bathroom was worth ~$50k according to the data.Good luck

-Miles

I lived there for a year and a half and now rent it out with a positive cash flow.

Yes. 15 miles from Youngstown.

@Helen Rolls , yes, I remember that article about CapEx expenses and it made a big impression on me - I suppose what's "easy" about this purchase/CapEx is that everything needs to be replaced fairly soon (half of the heating system, roof, foundation work, and windows!).