Part of my issue was not having a reasonably priced handyman ahead of time and eventually overpaying to just get it done and also inexperience as a manager.With that said, you essentially have two options: very cheap properties in less good areas (you're looking at 100k or less--which you might have trouble getting a good lender for)  or trying to do some sort of house hack (e.g. live in flip, live in rent by the room, multifamily) where you budget will be closer to 200k-300k.Personally, I would not look at real estate until you are maxing out your 401k and IRA, but lots of folks have done significantly better with real estate than stocks and would think I'm crazy for suggesting this.

We arrive in Portugal at the end of March and once we have got ourselves sorted I will see if we can get a few people around for a meet up. 

Learn how to evaluate a market by either reading and listening to a lot of content or by providing some sort of value to someone who already has that knowledge.

Prefer keeping this kind of stuff behind closed doors if possible and sorting it out without revealing dirty laundry.I would have been in the same boat as many other turnkey providers that are no longer around if I didn't focus on limiting how much business I take on.And even with my stupidly strict criteria, we still copped the brunt of the sword.Business is business and people are people, sometimes things just don't work out.It's a true shame but such is life.I always want whats best for everyone and for every deal to work out and for everyone to succeed.With the best intentions, mistakes are still made.Those that work hard and do their best, will also make mistakes unfortunately.Again, I sleep in peace and whenever I F@#$ up, it's an honest mistake so crucify me all you want.Thank God, never been sued and back round is squeaky clean and I intend to keep it that way.Less is more and when crisis does arise (It always eventually does no matter how much you prepare and do your best), we can hopefully rectify and do our best to fix.For example, just had an investor loose $50,000 on a deal and the next few deals we are working for free for this investor.We don't have to do this, we want to...Not sure how we would be able to accommodate such an instance if I had 50+ investors loosing that much so I guess my stringent on-boarding criteria has saved our A$$ for 10+ years now.Granted, I'm burnt out on folks and have pulled back even more from doing our "measly" 4-5 turnkey deals per month and have decided to focus on just building my own portfolio.Like I initially intended when I moved to this country in 2012.Thanks mate and keep being great

They are not braggadocious or needy of any sort of attention. 

I heard the servicing company laid off most employees and transferred the loans to another servicer (in some sort of agreement).

Also recommend the BP Find A Lender Tool - can sort by state and type of loan needed (DSCR)https://www.biggerpockets.com/business/finder/lenders

I didn't know there were detectors for these sorts of things.

So I had a windfall and can sort of "semi retire" with a part time low stress job. 

I also just use word processing to create a guide book. 3 ring binder with sheet protectors.I put in all sorts of things like local menus, maps to cool places etc.