Also remember you'll need someone on the ground(good birddog / locator for one) in those out of state areas that you're trying to close in; so team work is your best bet. 

If so, how did you monitor progress and mitigate risk? 

As you progress in your experience, that minimal data set will grow which should in turn make you more comfortable with your risk evaluation and your bid pricing. 

The best bet is always a tri-merge report with all three.  

It means I am betting he won't pony up the monies to correct the issues and likely won't agree to pony up to make me whole to walk away, thus, I will likely have to go to court to recoup my funds (EMD and costs I have unnecessarily incurred due to his failure to disclose pertinent information per the contract.As to the other question regarding my expected ROI, this was to be a buy and hold with about $250k in rehab (deferred maintenance and improvements).

Deals are a bit hard to find in Denver right now, so I bet that if there's some profit to be made here that you'll be able to find someone to either take this off your hands or perhaps do a joint venture.  

I bet you can find a small brokerage that will charge you a flat transaction fee plus a small monthly charge that will cover your E&O and mls access.

As we started to progress we bought pure rentals and have continued ever since.

The thing with renting, no one is a sure fire bet.

As is the property should still be cash flow positive after accessing the funds so my best bet is to spend the time looking for a deal while getting the finances ready.Thank you all for the advice!