You're young enough to see the market turn around after a correction and still realize profit from a sale 15 years from now.   

You can take them to small claims court, but are unlikely to ever see the money. 

Mostly they contact me to see the place.

Make sure they see the property tax impact in your offer versus what it currently is.  

I don't really see the advantage of the IRRRL (which I've used) in your situation vs. living in it for a year (or two for tax advantages if you sell within five years of purchase). 

Dadi if I bought OOS, I'd still want to go to the area and experience the city & neighborhood, and see the properties for myself...I know a lot of OOS investors don't do that, which, to me, is a failure of due diligence in most circumstances...it's one thing if you have a team of boots on the ground who are highly competent, and who have proven themselves across dozens of prior deals in that city--in that case, I might take their word for certain things... 

But we need to see the property and all of its financials before we even get a term sheet ( pre approval ) for the property.  

I can see the upside.

They also don't see the buying and selling costs. (8-15% depending) or the risk or the cost of capital.

One property has a sewer stop up so we got to meet with plumbers, learn about dye going through sewers to trace the route, then we got to pay the tree trimmer, got to see a mobile home moved into our park, went to the dealership to get keys to the house, got to get a snack at starbucks, see the mover mess up a tenants lawn and work to resolve it.