In other words I looked the part.When the police arrived and asked us what had happened, of course we knew and told them about Marta whom we noticed across the highway watching her handiwork.

Being affected by the crash in '08, I can definitely understand the motivated seller part of Real Estate Wholesaling.

'What was known as SEO' is DOA today (dead on arrival). 

I crashed my car.

We will actually be arriving into town Wednesday evening, so maybe 6 is ok.  

I took a 101 crash course on doing it and it seemed overwhelming for me.

On top of that, he has systems in place to automate everything without needing a property manager: automated check-in + a cleaning service that comes every morning like clockwork.I'm sure there's more complication to it than that, but clearly this guy is making far more money off using this property as a vacation rental (primarily, it seems, to professionals who need a place to crash near Downtown) than he would off of renting this crusty old mansion out to God knows who.  

Also personally speaking, I would never arrive unannounced to check on a tenant.

I say new-ish because I did have one rental property that wasn't so much an investment as a desperate bid to stave off foreclosure after the 08 crash and a forced relocation (ah, military life). 

In addition, because the Long Island market has been generally stagnant since the crash, capital appreciation is also iffy - so equity remains stagnant.