I have a property that's a good material for flip…but I would like to find out if the demo court is really tough to work with.

I currently work for a luxury building materials company and my commute is about an hour and a half each way every day.

Alternatively, 250k would get you the down payment on up to a $1.25m property.

This is in order to keep up with inflation and increasing taxes, insurance, utilities, cost of materials and labor for repairs, appliances etc. everything has gotten more expensive. 

Are there suitable alternatives?

Or if you are using the home as a short-term rental, you could try to qualify as "materially participating" and use the short-term rental loophole. 

Buy and hold in one of the A class areas in Baltimore, if you are going to do Baltimore, it’s the only part of the city that has growing population, and rehabs are extremely tough right now especially with no experience, I’m doing one right now on the eastern shore, basically cosmetic, was built in 1994, systems, plumbing etc in good shape, labor is even less than Baltimore, gc-ing myself, still running me 70k, materials are insane right 3bd 1ba, mid tier Lowe’s stuff (I’m even putting in a shower insert, no title) is running over 30k.

Alternatively, you could do a flat fee for one or both units.

An entire workshop of tools as well as building materials.

Ask them when they issue distributions (anything before the 15th of the month is a red flag), do they require reserves, how is maintenance charged, do you see copies of outside contractor bills, do they upcharge materials (PM's have LAR accounts with Lowes and often get 20% off), do they keep all late fees or just the management fee, what other fees do they charge (renewals, inspections, etc), where are tenant security deposits held, how are evictions handled and are you consulted before filing, what screenings do they run, what qualifications do they require from tenants, ask for a couple other owners to visit with for a reference.