Do not spend money to upgrade or do cosmetic work that will not increase rent.

Spend your time looking for something that makes money and that one will not do that at anything over 400k max.

Or do you just expect someone to spend a few months helping a stranger who is going to turn around and then compete with them?

Takes 30 seconds and can do it on my phone anywhere right after I get an email alerting me about the property hitting the marketThen if I get a near match then you spend the time to request the real actual numbers, take the numbers you know to be accurate (don’t always trust the sellers), and really tighten everything down exact as possible. 

He/they had done some guru courses, spending upwards of $10K.

Example if you have to track down the estate and spend endless months to get an increase in value of say 30k is it worth it to you?

Your basis is how  much you spend out of your pocket minus any depreciation you have taken. 

I want to tap into his cash flow without him having a say with how I spend it just as long as he gets his ROI too.

But more than anything spend the money and go to college and live the college life! 

On a site that big you can easily spend over 100k just to see the viability of a project.