Often you'll find that the providers who do require cash are also the ones with a more 'used car salesman' vibe, where there's a lot of pressure to sign something right away, or agree in writing to purchase a property that was emailed to you within five minutes to 'avoid missing out'.

If you hire a CPA at this point, your blood pressure will be lower, you'll sleep better and you can hang out with your brother.

That's a great way to get started and in my opinion takes off some of the pressure and risk of your first investment. 

The ones I spoke either did not know what I was talking about or had a 10 year fixed amortization, which will put too much pressure on me.

There's a handful of active wholesalers on the island that I know and can point you in the right direction, no pressure. 

At this point its probably not a "getting my money back" issue (they'll just file bankruptcy after the pressure rises), but should be a goal of tossing multiple people in prison.

As for pressure washing, only time id recommend only doing that is if the house has new looking paint.

You're right, there is quite a bit more pressure to have a team when it's long distance.

One can argue that this could be the bait tactic, but no one is pressuring anyone, everything is perception.The deals that I was looking at was a ROI of 13% Y-O-Y.

If you have unlimited time, you could use a bit of that cash to finance a flip that will let you get the hands-on experience you want, but without the pressure of needing to flip it fast - you'd have your passive income portfolio as a backup so that even if you make every rookie mistake in the book on that first flip, you're not all-in on a high risk venture.