The founder appears to have been involved in businesses outside of real estate: ‘My dream is a locally made grooming products business’ | People | nashvillepost.comSo it does not appear there is a lot of track record there, but those are questions I would ask.

The properties look gorgeous  - and we have yet to have an owner that was dissatisfied with the final product.

If you have a truly superior and/or unique product it will be easier to not have to compete with price. 

This is primarily what makes their work product substantially lacking in correct English grammar, legal protections, timely professionalism and many other ways any Securities Attorney will point out to investors.

Small shop brokers that have access to multiple programs so that they aren't beholden to one or just a few loan programs will typically get the most competitive product for the borrower. 

Book recommendation #1: Hands Off Investor by @Brian Burke https://store.biggerpockets.com/products/the-hands-off-inves...Book recommendation #2: Lend to Live https://store.biggerpockets.com/products/lend-to-livePodcast Recommendation: PassivePockets podcast is focused on passive investing in syndications - https://passivepockets.com/podcast/Passive investing summit: PassivePockets Summit May 2-3rd in Columbus https://get.biggerpockets.com/passivepocketsevent/I make these recommendations specifically since you mentioned passive real estate investing, and syndications or hard money lending are really the two most passive ways to invest in real estate. 

To name a few: lawn mowing business, marketing agency, video production company, acting career, window washing, SEO services, improv comedy, music production, painting, drawing, guitar, blogging, and photography.

The major issue here is the accusations that investors where told they were buying product X & they received product Y which was of course far worse.

For example, if she can't visit the property, is she good at record keeping (so everything is organized at tax time) or finding vendors, comparing product prices, finding free or low cost items on Facebook marketplace to improve the rental)3. emergency fund.

If it is a high end housing product you may have to use a designer because they have access to some material/finish suppliers that are otherwise unavailable but that tends to only be for the highest end housing deliveries.