Then purchase a vacation condo/cabin for trips and quality of life.

Quote from @Brendan Taylor: Best way to analyze areas is to make a trip and drive around the city.

Trip of a lifetime!

They didn’t go on trips and buy new trucks or drink fancy coffee.

If it stresses you out that you're only relying on your property management for all the information on what's going on then I would try to make a trip out to Cleveland every once in a while.

I think a lot of the deal searching could be done from home with just a few trips to inspect properties. 

I did an extensive research trip that included meetings at the Ministry of Tourism in Santo Domingo, with your country's best lawyers, ...

PMs who take time to teach tenants how to change out the air filters or how to shut off the main water or how to reset the breaker that trips will not only reduce service calls but will keep capital expenses down (changing out air filters regularly can diminish the chances of having to replace the condenser coils, for example).Maintenance repair surcharges isn't the only charge owners should look for in their PM agreements, but it is one of the more important ones that often gets overlooked.  

If there's anyone out there like me who wants to team up or plan a trip to the Houston auction, let's connect!

The rents that the seller pays (discounted) are going to trip up trying to refinance out of hard money as any lender will use the lower amount to qualify thus cutting your loan down to be able to make the rents cover PITI.