I am a big believer in living below your means, and I also know from 10 years of investing that you need to capital to make any significant progress in this game.

Have you made any progress or are you still doing the research. 

Multiple paths of progress evident3.

Repair leak (in progress, finished by the end of next week.

Running an STR is infinitely easier when you live close by, and progressively harder with distance.

He did give me an idea of how the area has progressed over the years in which he did say it has been slow and somewhat steady progression when it comes to improving the neighborhood.

After doing much more research and hearing the opinions of other professionals, I've concluded that it's best to utilize them for smaller deals, refinance to pay them back in full so I can take over full ownership, and continue to progress from there.

Everything. 2) Make sure you have a signed contract that is legal and thorough. 3) keep the progress payments relatively equal to the work being done....example - don't pay for tile when you're still doing framing.Go get some bids and then come back and talk to us again... 

My worst-case scenario is I buy an in-progress rehab all cash in a few months.

All this to say I do love tracking progress just to stay motivated if nothing else.