She may not want to spend her nights and weekends driving around with investors-- she has been in the business a long time (let's face it we aren't a cushy commission slam dunk) but if you tell her I sent you her way she will definitely give you an industry insider's opinion of who to work with. 

A wealth of information without spending a lot of money.

When discretionary spending dries up, travel typically plumets.

Would you want to spend the time on it to renovate? 

However, it's been six months since we hired a property management company, and the property is still not rent-ready.Now, the management company is telling us that we need to spend $8,000 to get the property rent-ready after a pagedale occupancy inspection.

If you're spending your time counting trivialities like this you are "tripping over dollars to pick up pennies".

As has been said if you don’t have anyone local to rely on you’re probably gambling.

Stop hanging out with your deadbeat buddies who spend all day drinking, talking sports, and otherwise wasting away.

Also, eventually, the renovations are out of date or worn and you need to do another cap ex spend. 

I see this constantly out in the market place those who want to jump in the RE world that have limited to no resources and they are far to worried about what the equity or money partner is going to make.. or they spend months trolling the internet trying to find that private investor who is happy with 8% or 10% which they never find and they just lose the dream   ... if there is not enough money in a deal to split profit or be able to comfortably pay HML  then the deal is too skinny to start with..