It's better to have a PM in place and ready for you to grow into needing one than to decide at a critical moment you've got more operational headaches than you can handle on your own.Having potentially a $180k cash position puts you in a very good place to start straight into a fourplex+ for doors. 

View report*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.This is rehab triplex (each unit 3b1b) in North Central PhillyAppreciate critic of the report.

These conditions are critical to protect you from having your property cited under the nuisance ordinance or worst.

Thanks AJ - all very good points, thoughts / answers below:Time to support tasks - albiet having demanding workloads, between my wife and I we are more than open to spending time getting critical tasks over the line to ensure sucess (e.g., contractor mgmt, tenant screening / mgmt, etc.)Why REI / goals - focused on investing in RE to support my portfolio diversification, creating a second sustainable income stream, and growing overall wealth.

But like he said, it may not be critical for you very often.

Is it critical to find a real estate agent that is a RE investor themselves?

Structure is critical. 

If it is seriously critical that one needs cash then maybe the other could make small payments with no interest.I divorced my 2nd wife in 1999 (or something like that).

I understand the concept of having your contractor go in and getting an itemized scope of work, estimate materials and labor, but by the time this is done, one of you other OOS investors already swooped in and took the deal ;)   As we all know...a good deal will go quick, so I think the skill of being able to quickly estimating these rehab numbers when analyzing a "good" deal,  especially being out of state, is absolutely critical. 

Foundations of a home are the most critical.