Be very, very cautious going into note investing.

I’m looking cautiously at doing fix and flips with an exit strategy of holding the property as a rental if it didn’t sell.

Be cautious of who you invest with.

That wasn't going to work for me - being cautious since it was a major rehab $80,000+. 

1) you get a partner who's willing to put up the down payment. no (reputable) lending institution would stick their neck out like this without some skin in the game from you. but a partner might be willing to bridge that gap for the both of you. or you could explore private money (someone you personally know) who might be willing to do the financing for you and take on a little more risk than an institution would be. 2) totally reasonable and do-able. just be cautious of property tax reassessment in switching title from personal to LLC, some counties will hit you with this.

appraisals are unforgiving because the appraiser doesn't care how proud you are of the project or how expensive your capital was.so, folks in the forums are urging you to be cautious. 

I believe you are overtly cautious.  

I ended up selling all of them during covid because it was too much of a hassle to manage them (even though I had a property manager).I'm now thinking about getting back into the game but this time I'm more cautious and want to focus locally.Your # one priority should be finding a trustworthy property manager when investing out of state.

But just because it would make me cautious doesn't mean you shouldn't jump at it

Back then by being cautious and a little bit lucky our first investments turned out very well.