There’s no real tour involved so what I only include 3 to 4%, or do I assume same closing cost as a regular deal at 10%?

You pay for it, you work for it, you have substantial risk involved, the only person who should benefit is you.  

To be fair, he has been involved in real estate for decades (owned a manufactured homes company, flipped homes for a few years, etc.), but he is absolutely convinced that there's no way I could buy lower end homes in my city to rent without ending up bankrupt.

A friend recently had a tenant through the tenant's agent want to buy their house, and it fell through even with the agent involved as the tenant didn't qualify for the financing. 

If the market does plung into recession, I’m confident that the properties I own in the markets I do will perform better than most and therefore I’ll have staying power.All loans involve risk, so I select debt products and terms that I feel minimize my risk and are commensurate with the return i think I’ll be able to generate.  

I’m hoping to purchase an investment property within the next year as a 30th birthday present to myself.My question to you all is, what types of methods do you use to learn about a market remotely?

I am interested in using this strategy, but I'm having trouble finding information relevant to the method I have in mind.

While many agree the accredited status is high, there are reasons for it (namely to protect everyone involved, especially the investor) and the SEC has also allowed non-accredited/sophisticated folks to invest in these types of deals through a different structure - the 506(b).It is 100% okay for you to reach out to Sponsors or other people putting together the deals you're referring to.

Attached are (2) reports of single family homes we analyze in NC and SC using the BRRR method.

The other method that was successful was lag bolting a "Job Box" to the floor joists