Many are buying properties, doing minimal renovations to keep their crews busy, and selling with small or zero profit margins.Cash buyers are a priority.

This could work well if you’re looking for steady monthly returns and don’t mind managing tenants (or hiring a property manager).Selling could also make sense if you’d rather use the $500,000 to diversify into other investments, like buying multiple properties or even a short-term rental on the lake as you mentioned.

Future land appreciation in this area might outweigh any tax benefits from buying in other areas, with a better (tax-wise) ratio.Before pursuing your plan, talk to a real estate accountant to figure out if you can, in fact, benefit from cost segregation.

I don't ever recommend someone buy a property having never seen or been there.It sounds like @Dustin Hagemaier would be a great resource for you.

In addition, you can even organize any fix-and-flips and buy-and-hold inventory. 

Nobody forced you to buy a property as a investor you are entitled to do your own research and due diligence.

It's mostly Class A properties, a few Class B.You may find the below copy & paste info useful in addressing your question:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Dscr will be useful in the future for fixer uppers and unique buys. 

My method has always been to call every listing that hit 90 days on market in areas that I want to buy.

We are starting to explore options for buying his shares to eliminate him as a risk and a roadblock but still have funds leftover for growth.