Perhaps you both should go bash on someone else's post for a while and let the people who want to help chime in on this one.

I am interested in recommendations for online courses or books (or other sources of information) that people have found useful. 

At the end of the day, in the long run, without studying the stock market and the knowledge like Warren Buffet, most people ended up not beating the market and might as well just put the money in SP500 index funds.

Without a crew on the ground, relying on recommendations from people you don't know is always risky. 

There are a ton of reviews of Propstream and other systems people use here on BP that you can do a simple search to read the reviews

Avoid the cash offer stuff, and saying quick closing in letters, use emotion, people really do respond well to it.

I couldn't help but notice the numbers you mentioned are what I recommend people start with (50-60k for out of state investors).

Some people decide to leave their jobs to invest in real estate, which might involve buying a property that initially loses money.

Metropolitan area has like 120k people and a range of areas (urban, suburban, and rural all in one).

I know some people who have tenants living above with no issues.