Bank regulations simply would not allow FDIC-insured money to be invested in such a poor credit risk but the beneficiaries of the deceased man's mortgage deserved payment so they sold the non-performing mortgage to a Boise " Private Note Purchaser" for a small fraction of its face value because the heirs lived in a small community and did not want the infamy of being the ogres who would compound the misery of an unlucky family by seizing the home through foreclosure after the occupants had suffered the loss of their son to childhood disease.The Boise opportunist had no such inhibitions.  

We want to structure it right from the beginning so that we are able to find someone serious and can have them put out signs consistently each weekend.Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I share the properties between the providers and can gauge their performance and price.The responses are great and they cover items within the infrastructure such as AC/heater,electrical, plumbing, garage door etc.If there is anything uncovered that needs to be fixed, my broker connects me with local handy men or professionals to take care of those issues.One of the providers, https://www.ahs.com/ charges $75 per call. 

Problem was the tenants never stayed long enough for the investment to truly perform like it should.

At the very least, you would have to scour REO listings, auxtions, tax sales, etc, or work woth wholesalers, who aren't likely to make you a priority, because you aren't buying consistently. 

It seems like all plans being pitched can be described as diversify into the stock market & mutual funds, or buy annuities and pay someone 1% of my net-worth annually regardless of performance.

I would highly discourage contacting them frequently if you don't have business to perform, as this could cause you to be ignored and labeled as a waste of time.

I love the idea of offering my time to perform open houses for other agents in my market in order to practice my communication with clients, build my own leads list and just to get my name out and network.  

As I should've stayed consisted way back when instead of waiting two years.

My question is how do they perform the due diligence to check out a property to determine if it is a worthwhile investment ?