But I'd advise against investing more than 10% of the portfolio with anybody (especially some stranger you met over the internet), even me (and I know me to be completely trustworthy;)).

Having total strangers constantly looking around a neighboring property is stressful to the other neighbors.

On the properties I buy that means $700+/- but it's well worth it to me because I'm not dealing with strangers and I have control.

I personally can't seem them siding with the tenant, but stranger things have happened, I suppose.

To complicate the matter more, Bob is no stranger to real estate investing, having over 30 successful years in the business.

Check out the book "Pitch Anything", it helped me with thought process when speaking to strangers out of the blue, it gives you a few "frames" of reference and directions to take conversations.

If it is a common name or if that person is no stranger to the court system, due to numerous criminal and civil cases, look through the cases under the "Caption" column for one that has a bank name or some financial company's name vs your owner's name.

Dealing with banks is like having sex with a complete stranger that doesn't kiss you or buy you dinner first.Usually something gets torn in the process.The guy who started me on the appraisal algorithm was actually quite insane, literally.

I'm not ready for that yet though, and need to have a few successful Pittsburgh places under my belt before offering to spend strangers' money on it. 

I'm no stranger to investing out of state, and I assumed incorrectly that this would be similar to my previous experience.I wanted this property to be my first of many with R2R, but it just didn't work out