Carrying cost would be about $1300 a month it may take me 6 months or to get it rent ready.

He has a 400k HELOC ready to use..Question: What is the best way to structure this??

At what point did you feel ready to rehab a property outside of your local area?

there is usually a tuesday meetup PREIA(or something like that, they email me but I rarely attend due to scheduling)  but you will likely be getting ready to go to the airport. check on meetup dot com anyway and see if something else is going on...I'm heading out of town myself or I'd give you a tour. 

Part of investing is to know when you are ready and when you are not. 

It's hard to stand out.There are some owner-occupied segments with people who share motivating factors for selling their home.Seniors with Long-time Ownership: often ready to downsize or transition to assistance.Homeowners with Low Financial Stability Scores (FSS): Struggling financially and likely ready to cash in on their asset.Both these categories have additional advantages in that they probably don’t haven’t been updated and may have deferred maintenance.

Not sure if I'm ready to pull the trigger.

Are you looking at properties that need to be fixed up then turned into rentals BRRRRs or just normal turn key properties that are ready to go?

https://www.zillow.com/rental-manager/resources/maintenance-tasks-for-spring/

( makes a difference )  if these have been answered in other posts - sorry in advance  You can scroll up and read.. I