As an added benefit—as you tour deals you are building relationships with the brokers and building that trust that gets them to recommend you as a buyer to their sellers.If touring the properties is too much workload or travel for you, get a partner and make that their role; while your role is sourcing deals, underwriting financials, and making offers.

I have noticed that buying in the historical district of Oregon City can have it's challenges. 

Something specific I want to learn more about is cross-border investing in the US.I want to learn as much as possible and I want to build relationships with  and provide value to as many people as much as possible.

You'd be surprised how a random meeting can turn into a friendship or mentor-ship, but you have to be willing to put your face out there and take the time to develop relationships and acquire knowledge along the way.

Effective communication is the key to any PM/Investor relationship.

Tough to make a call on this one but you might save the relationship if you sat down with the GC and poured over every detail on what has been paid out (down to the last cent) and then come to an agreement on what is owed back to you from the initial $15k. 

A true "win-win" - always a good start to a business relationship!

What I wrote above does not create an attorney/client relationship between us.

We have a local relationship with a bank in RI that gets us rehab funds and no seasoning needed, so once we are done the rehab we can cash out. 

Some items to consider are accessible path of travel (gravel is not going to cut it), potential elevator, potential historical preservation involvement, and the biggest issue is if a business can garner enough clients to cover the cost and still make a living.