Commercial is a universe apart from Residential and yes, commercial is 10X easier in regards to the things we are speaking on. 

He worked as a chef at the University. 

Even virtual?

(Ask me how I know this.)You'll be priced out of virtually any quality market as you'll need to put anywhere from 25-40% down if you'd like to cash flow in a deal you don't have to significantly rehab (or found off-market) with interest rates where they're at (and don't expect them to go down to 4% anytime this decade either--a 3-4% interest rate is historically low and investors in the 2010s were lucky and spoiled). 

Are they more universal? 

Someone I know bought a ranch to use as a short term rental property in 2021 for $1.7 million.Engineers did a virtual site visit, they were able to assign a value of $347,000 to either 5-7-15 year assets that were eligible for depreciation.In 2021, the bonus depreciation amount that you could take was 100%.This means that the owner could immediately deduct the full amount of eligible property in the year it was placed in service, rather than depreciating it over time.With that in mind, he took the full $347K deduction in his FIRST YEAR of ownership to offset taxable income from rentals.This was roughly ~20% of his purchase price.It was a big win for him.In 2024, the bonus depreciation rate is 60% so the calculation would be different.That said, you can still save and defer a ton.

I would love it to be local (rather than virtual).

As others have mentioned, the virtual accounts you can set up for each property was really intriguing to me. 

Plenty of pics and having a virtual tour for potential guest to instill a sense of confidence in the property.

Quote from @Rodney Davis: Have your heard of Strategic Investments Partners I have not, Is it a virtual meetup?