Not trying to point out a typo I'm genuinely curious.  

If in ten years time you are not where you want to be as a real estate investor, if you haven't achieved your goal of not needing a job, if your properties are barely generating any cash flow, if you seem to be acquiring more properties and less equity in them, it will be because you spent your time on "motivational" education and searching for the elusive "technique" that will lead to riches, rather than acquiring a genuine real estate education, one that includes the theory of property ownership, real estate finance, real estate law, property management and investment principles.  

The house needed a complete makeover so over the years we've transformed the house and earned us 70k of equity.

He is a humble and genuine person and I think you would both hit it off.

It cost me $600 to transform it. 

I genuinely appreciate any help.

@Michael Lee Thank you for the advice, it was more of a genuine question and less of an advertisement but you have made your point...

I think the genuine interest I showed made the difference. 

Good as it looks, I reckon the main reason they're not more popular is that even if they'd built a traditional home on the same site, costing $100k more, it may easily have resulted in a justified $899k asking price ie. the same profit as doing it the container-way.Makes more sense for you if you're also the end buyer/occupier, saving a genuine $100k!

I do enjoy design and the satisfaction of transforming something slightly distressed into a whole new place but I would also like to do this as passively as possible, especially if I'm doing it mostly from out of state.