Decided to play it safe as it was my first deal and had to overcome the fear.

It serves many benefits for both buyers and sellers and if a law had been passed long ago that all such private transactions were required to be serviced through a thrid party, we would not have as much regulation addressing the issues we have today, specifically, the individual investors under the SAFE Act!

Or push through working another 4-5 years to make sure you were "safe"?

I really see Columbus Ohio as an extremely safe bet for the next 10-20 years.

Even if you have good folks on the ground to help you out, you are going to be making trips to take care of things that those people are unlikely to do, not the least of which is risk management:  Making sure your property is safe for guests, inside and out.  

I did a lot of research, long term that’s a safe assumption.

And that get's even more confirmed when you look at home prices long term, like since WW2.It's like: I don't know if we are going to have snow for Christmas, or how much snow exactly it will be, but it's Wisconsin and so it's pretty safe to predict (even though maybe not 100%) we are going to have snow at some point next winter and the total accumulation is going to be probably around 30-50 inches.My operating assumption is that home prices are going to double (again) over the next ten years, just like the did over the last 10.

I already owned a large portfolio, but wanted to learn some non-traditional techniques for acquiring properties.

Treat the customer with respect, provide safe and desirable products,   purchased at the right price and condition, provide quality management  and anyone can be successful no matter what the product or market.  

The only issues that can come up with the appraisal is if the appraisers determines something in the property is not safe, or needs to be repairs making the appraisal "subject-to" certain repairs. 2.