My furthest one is 16 miles and that is my top limit. 

They might mean well but they aren't professionals and have their own limited ideas.  

There for I personally am limiting my exposure, buy focusing on flips and reducing my debt to equity ratio.       

If you think you'll enjoy WORKING in real estate as a LANDLORD, then you should try it in whatever limited fashion you can (remotely in your case at first). 

This could help you to maximize the retirement nest egg with a tax-deferred account while you are working and then avoid the early distribution penalty for withdrawing before 59.5.

We are working with a great team of partners on the General Partner (GP) side and we have a wonderful group of investors on the Limited Partner (LP) side.We worked with a great team to help make this deal go forward - from the debt broker, to the attorney, to the title company, to the property manager, to the insurance agent, to the lender, to the commercial real estate broker, and others!

I know some realtors, investors, commercial realtors (another side of what we do) but the only wholesaler I know at this point is in another market so I'm limited.

Limit yourself to a small area.

This includes but is not limited to marriage licenses, divorce settlements, child support, liens, bankruptcies, or judgments.

This will likely help you exit profitably or close to it without having to put more money in to it... of course you will not be recovering your money until the term is complete.The advantage of the above idea would be to allow an investor to own/control a property with limited out of pocket expense as opposed to purchasing the home for all cash and funding the entire rehab.