It is actually the only thing I do. 

Cleaning up our work area, I remembered what my old co-worker once told me on the construction site "There are 3 ways a job gets done: One way in our head, another way planned out, and how the job actually goes." 

Not sure how well any given agent can actually assist a buyer in negotiations.

We have done lots of research about the city, but I know there are things that can come up from people with experience, especially since we are OOS (and out of country too actually!).

Use Loopnet and look for the oldest nastiest piece of land or lot for sale.  

There are a lot of pieces that go into the deals and giving someone a percentage of profit will start to become less of a value than what it was at the beginning. 

This is the "dream" of many investors - retire with paid off rentals with cashflow to enjoy their golden years.5) Hard Money Lending (HML): this is actually an easy one.

You should reach out to @Melissa Haworth she can get the actual numbers/rents on STRs in the area to help run your comps.Each building is different, each area is different, it is important to find accurate data to make good decisions.

A lot of training actually.

I've actually started looking into that today, thank you.