Here some of my advice first Educate yourself Understand the local rental market trends, property values, and rental demand.

Material Participation Activities:Property Maintenance: Engage in repairs or construction work on the property to maintain or enhance its condition.Contractor Management: Oversee the hiring and coordination of contractors or handymen for property-related tasks.Tenant Interaction: Communicate with tenants regarding lease agreements, inquiries, or property issues.Property Acquisition: Invest time in property search and evaluation processes, including visits to potential investment properties.Property Management Tasks: Perform activities typically handled by property management companies, such as rent collection or property inspections.Non-Qualifying Activities:Educational Pursuits: Time spent on real estate education or training programs does not count towards material participation.Investor Hours: Hours dedicated to investment analysis, financial planning, or portfolio management are not considered material participation.

I believe in the beginning I will get a lower return doing this myself, however education is always paid for somehow, right? 

Cross reference with employers with higher education off linkedin (use an API), and see if there's a correlation between housing prices in districts which are being gentrified, school ratings over that time period, and housing prices (in fact maybe there's another correlation between if these employers work for recently IPO'd companies and are exercising fresh options to purchase real estate).

one thing that's negative from Out of state investing is that we as landlord never grow up. we don't develop business channel, we don't develop business skillset, and we give money to out of state realtor and out of state property management only.in term of business education, investing and creating local business locally is way preferable.I'd rather want to know much the NNN lease in san mateo in-n-out burger rather than 2/1 in indianapolis.Passive investing IMO is detrimental in long term as we almost don't gain anything from a family dinner cash flow.

Make sure you understand the work that needs to be done and educate yourself prior the walkthrough and ask questions and share any thought you have about the project.this is the most important decision of your renovation.

There is no time cap on the $1M mark.I have immersed myself in many educational materials over the years and plan to continue doing so wrt multi-family RE investing.

#1 Never stop educate yourself

That's much more relevant information if you want to assess the profitability of an investment or the lack thereof.As the saying goes, "If something looks too good to be true, it generally is".International real estate investing makes total sense but you have to educate yourself so you know what you're doing (same as if you invest in domestic real estate).

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!