Many people don't want to self manage from out of state, and professional managers can suck up alot of the cash flow, and not do as great of a job as you would've hoped. 

This is a hard job.

Provide copies to all parties involved.This project-specific agreement works well for one-time jobs, but if you plan to work with subcontractors regularly, I highly recommend having an attorney draft a Master Services Agreement (MSA) for your business.

Is it wrong they tell the investors if asked to say they are "partners", or "contractors" just bidding the job? 

I got into this by accident when i took a job via upwork as a VA  for Vontive and stated at interview  i could lower there costs and stress by automating there lead gen.I automated the lead gen and they didnt need 5 0f the 6 VAs they hired and we cut there costs by nearly 60%.Thats when i realised that you could automate even the cross platform data scraping.Then i got some extra clients from Upwork and now Im on here to help, offer the same and expand to others.going to the recorder office/courtYou only need to go to the physical building if thre is information on the documents that you need but cant view online.

Oregon coast crashed hard in the GFC   the Covid has it coming back FINALLY  but bottom line is very little industry and jobs.. since logging and fishing has curtailed .. so its retirement and tourism. 

The onboarding was extensive, and I don’t think they do a great job of explaining that most of what they need is related to the banking side of things and actually nothing to do with setting up the software.

I recognize there are other ways I could invest this cash (including another property) but I am being mindful of levering myself out too much in the current environment where job losses are more common in my industry (tech).

This is the reason I quit being a moderator because of something that went mildly off the rails in the forums, and then it was completely censored because I responded to staff in the forums after they mentioned me.I think the moderators do an amazing job and should be given more pay or credit or anything.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.