The AVM we provide is a great starting point to evaluate a large number of properties in diverse areas quickly to find a few properties that may suit your investment objectives.  

With an eye to the future, should we really be buying in remote suburbs, or is that like investing in VHS rental shop in a digital age?

Good point on deferred maintenance, just had inspection and owner is agreeing to fix all major objections.

Objective: buy a single family condo, least down payment, reasonable return on cash investment, hold for at 5 least years. 

With your concern on planning, Maybe look at available courses or tutorials on some project software.( In school it was Microsoft Project), most commercial builders will use Primavera, and online objects for residential like builderTREND and Foundation.

A hard money loan is never in single digits that I've heard of.Taxes at $65 P.A. ?

They come with a 4 digit number on the key and I engrave the same 4 digit number on the lock. 4 locks covers pretty much any house,  3 entry doors and a garage door. 

But I put the blame on myself for taking the first steps on initial action, but not following through and following the shiny object to another type of investing. @ Roy N. had a great idea about just digesting what's on the website and forums.

For me, this is what I refer to as a "shinny object of distraction". 

To assist with the registration process, below is the information needed to complete the registration: Owner contact information Landlord (property manager) contact information residing in Indiana The parcel number (seven digit number) for all applicable propertieso Parcel number information is available at: http://maps.indv.gov/AssessorPropertvCards/ Number of rental units on each parcelLandlord Registration Fee: Paying the registration fee is the final step of the process before submitting the registration form.