I think being Free, and living off the cashflow of the investments, and not being tied up at a certain location for a job, and the family willing to move to other cities and states to check out other possible places to live make this possible.My wife and I are thinking of doing this, we just bought plane tickets, rented car and airbnb to visit another state.

The agency will take a large cut, usually about 40% but they do all of the work.

If you ask the seller to do the work, they might cut corners to save some $$, or take too long.Good luck!

That all makes sense, and we definitely will have a professional help us- I guess I would also wonder, if 40% of the property (square footage) is rental but it is only rented 50% of the time would that be cut in half to 20% capital gains or would it be 40% no matter what the occupancy rate is?

Are the tenants going to cut grass / shovel snow, or will you need to hire someone?

An eviction is going to cost you a good bit of money and time... have you considered buying the tenant out and/or cutting your loses? 

Cut branches that touch the structure allowing bridges, check the roof gaps at chimney and plumbing pipes.

I have a couple credit unions I know of that lend 100% HELOC financing out on 1-4 unit owner-occupied properties so even if your cash is tied up in home equity you can draw from that line to purchase more properties as the tenants pay the debt down for you.

They would buy the property, I would lead and fund the rehab and the split on the sale would be 60/40, 60% being my cut. 

The property tax in Anchorage is very high which will cut into your cashflow as well.Originally posted by @Filip Reutov:@Jamie RoseI think our buying power can go further out of state, AK has some big list prices.