In addition, committing ~ $200K requires some level of sophistication on the part of the investor and you are more likely to find someone to agree to your terms in smaller transaction sizes, but even that will be difficult. 

Once you go above ~$120,000 in Detroit you're going to have a hard time cash flowing, although rents have moved a bit higher and we still underwrite our deals pretty conservatively on that end.All that said, it has gotten more difficult to find deals that work.

Without the complimentary service very difficult to make meaningful margin. 

I would need to know more specs on the house but with material shortages It's difficult to say how much to budget. 80K-120K for full gut perhaps but unsure with lumber beings so expensive and shortages.I would plan 9 months of vacancy between the pain you will endure pulling permits & having your contractors show up everyday to complete the work & then final inspections to get a CO. 

Real estate is capital intensive; so, that makes it more difficult to scale (despite leverage). 

Sadly these tend to be some of the most difficult properties to sell. 

I cut off PMs that constantly try to find ways to add revenues by what I call trickery; selling some 3rd party service that they have contracted to all their clients, recommending small fixes turn into large one's,etc, make it difficult to get 2nd opinions. 

This will cost time and money and can be just as difficult as moving away from home.If you want to make it you'll need to do some hard things and make some hard decisions.

I too believe that economies of scale will will give us more bang for our buck, but since MTR data is fairly new, it was also difficult to analyze the profit potential for a new 4plex.

Still, considering how difficult it is to find a good real estate focused accountant, limiting your search to local providers usually gives you too few options.Expand your search to include remote CPAs.