A simple fence, keyed access, a logo and a name can go a long way to define the area for your buyers.  

BUT, the wonderful aspect of this business is if you are educated, someone else's opinion means nothing.

My comments didn't disparage the "cash flow" aspect of such a buy.

If you were to apply income based valuation on 1 to 4 unit properties, you would likely get the wild swing that you have observed.Second, the formula of "Net Return" as you defined it (i.e never seen it used before) is essentially Cap Rate * 5 (i.e. using your assumption of 20% down).

Especially if you're going out of state, the people handling your investment are the MOST important aspect of that investment.

There are so many different aspects to investing in real estate just like there are so many different sports.

The main aspects of real estate that I am interested in would be owning rentals, and working as a RE agent. 

If you want them to educate sellers about what a realtor could do for them the realtor should definately be forced to tell sellers about their options. 

My capital is $480K cash on hand, I want to be totally involved with every aspect of the transaction. 

My short term goal is to identify my niche in REI and become proficient in that aspect of investing.