He is not my cup of tea but man he gets slammed. 

Like you, I don’t drink coffee but I drink tea.

Although I absolutely believe some ask because they hope to hustle the "inexperienced" landlord,  I know for a FACT that some want to know that you actually own the place and they are not being scammed .  

I guess I am still just hoping he was naive, inexperienced and maybe careless, not evil.

Also, I was young and inexperienced.  

There are quite a few people who are trying to make money in real estate with "no money down", and this has attracted quite a few inexperienced wholesalers to the game.

I don't necessarly want to take on a huge rehab project as I am inexperienced and live out of state. 

The actual value of the two properties was way below that, around 230,000-240,000, but I was too inexperienced and too eager to know or care.

You'll get a lot of calls, but they have 2 real problems:1) They are illegal in many places.2) They associate you with inexperienced investors/scams in the minds of many home sellers.With those to caveats, if you are willing to do a little work and are looking for the cheapest route possible, you can purchase blank Coroplast (what most bandit signs are made of) wholesale in large sheets.

I think if your partner is also inexperienced that would be a recipe for disaster.