My options are: A straight up real estate trade, Fl property to Pa propertySell house #1 and use the funds to add "lipstick" to house #2Sell house #2 after adding "lipstick"Rent house #2 after adding "lipstick"Sell both houses "as is" then find a duplex close to me in PaAny and all suggestions are welcomed.

After a year of paper trading, he decided to fund me with that.

As an out-of-state investor into RI, I accept the trade-off I'm making.

Most of the people charging for real estate coaching haven’t been the most successful at the trade.  

Improve your position by trading out and up.

Seems doomed to fail in any sort of market correction. maybe its like publicly traded companies that have Billion dollar valuations but make no money :) 

@Jordan FeinerWell you’re missing that you’ll be able to trade up if you add value.

However, I could stay with my current job (I am a property manager by trade so this works well for investing) which would make it easier to buy more properties in the future.

Originally posted by @Dave Hanks: In short, Zillow offers is probably right for certain owners, it is definitely wrong for investors.I would say with confidence that zillow offers is wrong for any home seller, their format is horrible and their re-trading techniques border criminal.

You are trading your time for knowledge.