Ran into some surprises like a drive way buried under where the new driveway was going which needed to be excavated ($400)Roofing costs have nearly doubled since I was last in the construction business, I budgeted 3500, it costs me 5200.I did not recgonize that there was significant drainage problems in both the front and back yards when I bought the place. 

I have been reading, listening to podcasts and more but have yet to find a post that walks through the basics of the wholesale process as a buyer. 

.- Harder to do remotely- but take a trip and do drive by's to find properties you may want to pursue.Hope these options help.

Basically I'm asking if I can / should do this:- Create an IRA LLC structure with the LLC being in New Mexico / Arizona- Create nested LLCs for any real estate investments, ex. an Illinois LLC for an Illinois property

I'll check with him. has to be done by a broker or at least signed off by your broker.. there are mandatory disclosure docs right on the DRE website you can pull off and read.. pretty basic stuff..  

I would take a drive up to Wolcott NYRochester NY And Buffalo NY 

I am not super familiar with reverse mortgage but if you do some basic math$72,000-$50,000 purchase price-$5,500 selling costs=$16,500 assuming your numbers are correct and you don't have to do anything to the home before sale

My best advice is start with personal recommendations from friends and family in the area, try driving for contractors; kinda like driving for dollars, but you are looking in areas where there is a lot of investor activity and start collecting cards.

My assumption is that you would need your rental income to at least keep pace with the inflation as this will likely drive your expense percentage increase. 

I imagine they have drive by or drone pictures.