You can probably spend much less time touring and learning new things than you would in an otherwise unfamiliar market: laws, neighborhoods, tax considerations, etc.Scenario 2: Stay in Place & Buy an Out-of-State Multi-Family Property1. 

If you go with the partnership route1) You need to manage the money going in and out of the business bank account.2) File a partnership return and be responsible for issuing K-1's3) make distributions to you and your partner for cash flow that you receiveYou will likely spend many hours on a nice gesture.I may want to consider instead to give a christmas gift or a bonus for early completion of projects.

If your time is worth $500 an hour I would spend the 5k on 10 hours of searching for a free mentor.

If you are able to manage it yourself, I think you will get a lot of very helpful education in real estate by spending a least a year or two doing that.You'll be able to work with property managers a lot better if you've done the work yourself for a bit, and it also helps to get familiar with the various laws and regulations you have to comply with as the owner, even if you do have a property manager in place (e.g., the new RI rental registry and associated lead paint inspections/certificates).It's up to you whether you're able to do it, but I think you'll get a lot out of the experience if you can try it for a year or two.

I “assume” they meant you wouldn’t defer all your taxes if you used leverage on a $450k purchase instead of “spending” all your cash.

I'd say start the process of securing your HELOC if you havn't done so and spend time analyzing deals and determining what type of investor you are looking to be. 

GC in my area cost 10% of the total and I would say that is worth it for what they provide, but if you have the knowledge and willingness to be on the phone with subs (and spend a lot of time on site) you could save that by DIYing it.

We don’t use the 70% rule for anything except to decide if we’re going to look at the deal… and even then we just want to see if it’s close before we spend time running numbers.

Spending the owner's money, not saying anything, and letting them discover it while reviewing the monthly statement is unprofessional.

And how much did you spend in the rehab?