I've met Jim and Chris, both on informal basis's at the Haunted House which was a great fundraiser for Northwest Harvest and then as a guest at the suite for a Kraken Game (had my own tickets, just got a guest pass to the suite to hang out with my in laws). 

Often there is no facility and no notes so you have no idea why they are in the area or where they will work everyday which in the Boston area can make a big difference.

And I called the bank every day to know any updates. 

Your advisor did you a disservice with a simple answer with no basis for their recommendation. 

The main house tenant did not like the STR part(after they already agreed to it), after the renewal we made both STRs and it's one of our best income producers(on a % basis).There's quite a few areas for this-- Virginia Beach, Garner, Zebulon, Pooler, Georgetown.

The “worst” appraisals I’ve seen (on a consistent basis) as to over valuation are on non operational health care facilities.  

(case by case basis depending on rents).

Realtors do this every day.. this is not an uncommon experience.. just ask one who has dealt with a listing that is going through a divorce.. the really hairy ones for me is when I bought at court house steps  and then go to the door to introduce myself as the new owner..

Very rarely do single family homes cash flow, at least not on a consistent basis over an extended period of time regardless of what your spreadsheet may suggest.

We obviously handle the ones near us in-house, but hiring someone in another market to work one day a month is a bit of an odd task.My guess is that remote property management companies need to have a sort of Swiss-army-knife person in the area that can do many variable tasks for them and works on an hourly basis as there may not always be things to do, but I don't know that for a fact.How do remote/long-distance property management companies overcome the challenges of not being in the area?