You can simply use a free or occasionally paid coworking space when a meeting room is needed.To quickly zoom in on needing a meeting room: a thing to have in mind is that meetings here in Spain a lot of times are done during lunch with a decent priced menu of the day (the Spaniards immediately know what I mean).

I've been eyeing land in Central and West Texas, and they occasionally have some interesting opportunities, but some of them seem too good to be true. 

Maybe an occasional HVAC.

Yes pretty common, minimum downpayment is generally 25% (occasionally that 20% will work) but just depends on your situation.  

"I am no lawyer, but terms of service are occasionally challenged & found insufficient.  

Did I ever have the occasional illegal working for me, either directly or indirectly?

My bookkeeping firm provides me with a steady active income, which allows me to keep doing deals, cover unexpected expenses, and navigate the occasional black swan event.

Build a reliable team on the ground, plan occasional visits, and trust your general contractor to handle the day-to-day.

Again not a big deal for a home owner with one single mortgage to keep track of if their loan changes services occasionally, but with a number of loans all changing companies multiple times in the same year, it becomes frustrating trying to keep track of all of these changes, only to have more changes.   

When you mentioned you did your homework on the turnkey property, if that were the case you would have had a really good idea what the property was worth before you offered on it (of course sparing the occasional rogue appraiser, which may be what happened to you... idk) and certainly before the appraisal.