We recently moved out of a one BD apartment in Philadelphia located two flights of stairs above a bakery. 

If you can't invest in your back yard, pick a market that is close by and you can drive or at the very least have an easy flight to.

Property tax rates are much lower, below 1% and appreciation is higher, also a shorter flight there than the Midwest. 

I've seen two rookie things on youtube before on my flights, i forgot their names.

I'd gladly meet up with you both at Flight or somewhere for coffee.

I got audited for my plane and got through it OK  with my log book and I always either flew IFR or with flight following so my destinations are on flight aware tagged to my N  number then just show the deals we bought or the loans I made in the locations I flew to or the bizz associates that I met with.. where i got hammered was on commercial flights.. credit card statements and receipts did not work or were not good enough I need to save the actual boarding pass. 

Also worth taking a look at cities and metros in person, although the flight and hotel/air bnb can add up, you can generally write those costs off, and in general getting on the ground and feeling the energy of a city or market can tell you a lot about the intangibles there.  

If you said that the property is in another state, then I'm assuming you may have to catch a flight, rent-a-car, food, etc....which will easily cost you more money than just hiring an inspector outright. 

Even a flight to York PA will take 2 hours then an hour drive.

Additionally, since this project is already in flight, you run the risk of mechanic liens taking priority over your loan as they can backdate the lien to when work commenced.