I am not an attorney (disclaimer) but if your contract states they must have your consent to spend anything over $500 and they failed to get your consent, I can't see how a judge would not see things in your favor.  

I understand why they think that given the pod casts  late night TV etc etc. but reality check is this is a capital intensive business.. and undercapitalized business fail most times.Americans specifically have a very tough time managing personal debt.. and some of it is certainly regional..

To me it is going to most likely be next to impossible for you to do what you want to do unless you are willing to live on VERY little BUT if I was to advise someone trying to do this I would say FLIP as fast s you can until you build up enough to buy multi families Or start and run a successful business The chance of the business failing is huge.

However I fail to see how this is true at the scale at which I would be capable of buying...in my price range the properties would not be large enough to merit their own on-site Management, unless maybe I just bought one and bet my entire future on it.

A lot of great information on this site to get you started.

This site is a gold mine of knowledge, some of the experts that chime in regularly have many decades of Real Estate Investment experience and happily help new people. 

Its my first time using bigger pockets so still not sure how to use the site.

Here is a site Ive started using recently.

@Susan Chan Most of the turnaround projects I've heard about involve one of the partners overseeing the management at the site.

They would always deliver wrong things, or fail to deliver the right ones. 50 min minimum to get someone on the phone and they are mostly incompetent.