It wasn’t ideal, but it was the only way to keep the deal alive.I made the drive to her small town, met her at a local bank, and had the paperwork notarized.

If you look at Australia and the UK, these integrated services models have been taking off and in general, those two counties remain ahead of the US in professional services evolution! 

In my experience, there are a range of starting-off experiences, but one's experience is not always indicative of someone's desire/drive/commitment to pursue and thrive in real estate. 

If you haven't already, try going off market, driving around neighborhoods that would be of interest to you and finding ones that fall into your criteria (your agent should be able to help you as well).

You’ve got time, a clear goal, and the drive to make it happen.

Quote from @Omar Samaniego: Quote from @Gannon Van Dyke: I started using RentRedi this year and found it super helpful after transitioning from spreadsheets and Google drive docs and using docusign for leasing re-ups.

These days as you mention with STR almost everything can be handled remotely...cleaning, painting, locksmith, yard care, even drive by pictures of the house occasionally or internal pictures too. 

You could also try looking up money judgements filed against local businesses at the magistrate level and target them with direct mail or driving for dollars. 

It's a very lucrative business to start a website and drive traffic to then turn around and sell the leads to realtors or lenders.

Driving around the neighborhood over time, I saw the same van at a few other houses.