There's a lot of great local meet-ups that I'd encourage you to look into. 

Any tips/advice/encouragement is greatly appreciated.Garage door - they had a car roll into it so I'm getting an estimate.

Stay encouraged my friend... set your goal and make it happen.

I highly encourage you to search out the market here.

@Charlie MacPherson Thanks for the encouragement and it sounds like your fix and flip is going extraordinarily well!

Now though, its gotten messy with"new management" and the building inspector is encouraging me to please buy it.  

You could then upgrade to the self-directed format once you actually have funds to meaningfully self-direct.  

So I'd first encourage you to make sure you really understand your own goals, and then your own interest in how much work you put into an investment property, and then decide between the two options from there.There are lots of ways to find the good turnkey folks.

I do appreciate the words of encouragement tho, hope to do business with you someday. 

Account Closed I like that idea.Your job then, is to encourage her to be wise with her money.