Would definitely recommend finding a partner who can help walk you through this if you decide to move ahead. 

If you have any questions shoot me a message and I can walk you through the process.

As you begin you REI journey here is a piece of advicecheck out this website for a great over view of a city https://www.areavibes.com/This website gives you a total livability score and you can see things like crime rate, housing, walking score and more.Best of luck!

If you are able to make it work and it fits into your lifestyle.

They have failed to renew my entities with the Secretaries of State multiple times, have billed me wrong amounts, and GREATEST OF ALL, have cost my business ~$50K in cumulative TAX PENALTIES due to negligence in filing for a tax extension, failing to walk me through my tax filings and needed payments, and failing to file an abatement promptly.

I made the same recommendation, if they were to dip into EC from OOS, that would be the only place that would potentially fit their buy box.

You are prepared to walk away from a deal.Not going to give you the answer (maybe if you were Army or Air Force) LOL, but here is the approach. 

Plus, I’ve put together a comprehensive guide to walk you through the process step by step.What’s your biggest challenge as a new host?

It fits their needs.  

Miraculously, I didn’t lose my shirt, but I broke even on one house and, due to other circumstances, had to walk away from another.