I actually hired one to try and get a mysterious charge-off removed at a price of $99 a month and after 6 months, nothing had happened except that my bank account was $600 lower.

It is simply a means to diversify your IRA, not a way that you can personally access the funds for your own purposes.Do some reading here on BP and you will identify a few providers of both service types that participate here regularly.  

A bit removed from metropolitan areas. 

From the "paint and carpet" cosmetic rehabs to a house we are finishing up now that was a 200yr old log cabin that required us to catch the top story of the home with industrial steel i-beams and remove the entire bottom half of the house and rebuild it from the footers up.

Also, I see lawn care but what about snow removal?

Once you jump into multi-family, including duplexes, you're going to start running into more questions like who's paying what utilities, who is taking care of lawn or snow removal, etc.

I would add another 5-7% into your expenses for capital expenditures in addition to regular repair costs to be safe.I'm not seeing an appraised value in your numbers.

Depends on the risk of the deal, the holding time, and the operator's track record.Consider that investors regularly have access to projects from very experienced leads where the leads are all investing their own capital, and that common terms may be 7% pref, 75/25 profit split, and say 1% acquisition, 4% management, and 1% disposition.I probably wouldn't take a chance on a new operator.  

I hold regular networking events here in SD.

he removed part of a load bearing wall.