She said that if I pay $42,000 for the next 18 months, that she guarantees I will at least get this 42,000 back by the end of 18 months but probably much more. 

There are people who buy a longer term (12 months or more ) OPTION giving them a RIGHT to purchase a subject property, at a certain price, within a certain amount of time, and attempt to either sell the option for a higher price or close on a simultaneous purchase and sale to an end buyer paying a higher price.  

Quote from @Cathy Li: It's a white label software built on go high level.

If they failed to perform, you should have been able to terminate early and/or end your contract without penalty.

Highly recommend you DM @Samuel Eddinger and buy him lunch to pick his brain!

I had 5 houses with them that were terribly managed (placing bad tenants, extremely high rehab costs). 

I am bumping into more and more people that I consider fairly high achievers that seem to have someone coaching them to do better as well.

Currently, I am looking at Hemlame for local, I tried to use them for an out-of-state investment property, but the cost with an agent would end up far greater than a full-service property manager.The dream option would combine all accounting, bill pay, rent collection, provide eviction services, and maintenance coordination outside of normal hours.

Buying in a high COLA with loss protection is a no-brainer in my book, but only if you expect to relo again.

But presuming you are talking about doing the above, this is a high risk strategy.