Spending hours of time in traffic is a waste of time and production for most companies. 

I wouldn't waste my money on an effort that's likely to fail.

I strongly believe house hacking is the best way to get started because rents, are not only a waste of money, but are so dang high in the metro.

(Don't imply they have wasted the money elsewhere,  even if there is a brand new car in the driveway,  etc)   This all needs to be documented so do it in something like an email chain making sure to identify their full name, the property,  and reference important lease terms like the effective date, deposit amount, rent amount,  how much they are behind, etc.  

Hoping to connect with other rental property investors in one on ones at meetings once social distancing minimizes.

Is there a way to minimize this risk and complete a successful flip?

In the end, you want to make money on the money you put into your properties and if the cost were $50,000 and the net gain from said renovations were $50,000, you would be wasting a lot of energy.

I believe that is a waste of money for someone with only 1 property who hasn't pulled in 6 months of income for the year. 

they will take care of hiring a title company and filings with Erie County.. your cost will be minimal. 

Could even remove any payment for tenant placement and make it a set 15% of rents collected therefore you know they will be laser focused to keep vacancy as minimal as possible.