The person leasing doesn't own anything unless they exercise the option.

With todays communications systems the world is a very small place and investors with a team in place in the area they invest do not need to be physically present to operate. 

In CA it's known as in pro per.Congratulations on you taking the time to physically going to the county court house to retrieve a free list.

Agree with Marc & Chris on the aggregate though, you should underwrite some live deals and approach the exercise like you will own them within 2 months, whether you have intention of buying or not.

Im super weary of doing this because its my first purchase and I feel as if I need to physically be there to get all the necessary steps taken care of such as inspections and meeting the owners to get a good understanding of what the properties are operating at.

Real estate is attractive to me because you are investing in a physical object that you can see, touch and have much more control over.

Physically looking at property is a must to learn from. 

With every real estate market cycle we always need to exercise extra levels of caution and assets need to be underwritten with scrutiny and don't just believe the "broker" and "news" hype. 

In all 3 properties I know there was a issue with prior tenant water bill: in one case tenant has been delinquent, in the other case tenant used a stolen meter, in the third case apperantly meter was magically on physically, but in the system it was off.I had a plumber going in to investigate leaks.

Is the plan that you two will physically do some of the work?