Over the last few months I have been educating myself reading, watching the videos here on BP, looking at as much information as possible but I still need some help with fitting all of the pieces together. 

All excellent advice.

What you have added is excellent.  

I also have been reading books and watching YouTube videos on real estate.

We keep everything extremely positive, many of us are on the FB page daily providing videos and a lot of additional training. 

It's a mix of on demand videos, live Q&A sessions, and a step-by-step curriculum to help you get your next deal.

Plus the webinars are excellent free material. 

We do it for our clients all the time.But an OOS investor should be careful as there are so many ways they can get taken advantage of:1) Buying the wrong property, wrong location, etc2) Being overcharged because there's no transparency on actual costs and budget3) Shoddy work because no pics/video are supplied4) Crappy tenants are placed that destroy the rennovationsNone of the above are discovered until an owner goes to refinance the property or sell it.What should an investor do to protect themselves?

An additional thought is to sell the duplex, but I am reluctant as it is in an excellent town in an excellent neighborhood.Much thanks to anyone willing to give feedback, ask me questions etc.

No tenant/contractor images or "video tours" - boots on the ground with eyeballs!