If they are well behaved and not aggressive in nature I'm good. 

If he failed to answer any of his questions he was to go back to the 1st grade and behave.

To this point you have behaved in a 100% ethical manner in my mind.

(behave...)  

Having served in the Marine Corps, I can't tell you how annoying/maddening it is when you come across ppl behaving in such ways.

But ideally you'd want one who already has some RI clients with real estate, as RI has become a lot more tax-unfriendly to investors in the past few years.For example, they eliminated itemized deductions in 2011 (http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20110327/REG/303279975) and also started treating capital gains as ordinary income around the same period (http://voices.yahoo.com/elimination-preferential-tax-treatment-capital-6915746.html).That said, one of my more experienced real estate friends in RI seems to be having great luck with someone out of Ohio.

I will be having a contractor walk through with me.

But the appreciation depends on how real estate behaves in the future. 

The main way to alleviate that would be having "boots on the ground" so to speak by utilizing a property manager.For example, you can purchase property in Midwestern states for much cheaper than here in sunny California.

You can get FHA insured loans on investment property, but you have to pay the larger down payment.The steepest penalty that your friend would incur would be having your loan application denied if the bank decided they don't want to lend to you ... but that's more about his ego, and not going to influence his credit score.