You're looking at real estate as if it trades on a screen.

This property has some one-of-a-kind qualities namely a nice creek with inbound and outbound waterfalls at each end of the property (its on a hill w creek canyon).I've gotten the septic scoped and certified, well is good, power needs to be reinstalled as property was abandoned years ago.

I recently saw someone turn around a three-family property there by targeting tenents like teachers and nurses.. stable professionals who value quality housing.

It's really tough finding a reliable and honest contractor who does quality work.

Are their listings detailed with good-quality photos?

Nobody likes to work hard in the heat.The biggest concern in the past has been winter, but 2024 was the warmest year on record and we have seen +3F on average in every season, which really took the edge of winter (you can call it brown grass season now) while summers are pleasant 75-85F.The cost of living is low, yet the quality of live is relatively high.

How do you screen your tenants , and how far away from your personal home would you be willing to look for a property?    

One capex issue or tenant turnover is going to eat up years of "cashflow".I would advise you to work on getting a smaller number of high quality units rather than scaling to 20.

In my experience, Section 8 tenants are low-quality.

Everything matters, from picture quality to online presence.