My question is, how could I mitigate the risk from being in a similar situation with future properties?

Risk Mitigation: Spread risk across different income sources.2.

Start small, work with a local agent, hire a property manager, and invest in a market with strong fundamentals to mitigate risks.

No difference with a qualified REI program, if it will give me time, years, save from loss's, mitigate failure risk, assure success, hell $40k starts looking like a paultry amount for something that will make factors annually thereof. 

Mold spore concentrations wereMeasured to be 225,000 spores/m^3 at the worst location in the home and decline in various other rooms of the home.My concern (or rather question) refers to the “requirements” for mold remediation— the listing documents include (3) mitigation estimates ranging for $60 -$120k along with the scientific specimen results from the contractor that performed the mold assessment.

Also, make sure you have solid water mitigation responsibilities for the tenant in the lease. 

Below is a nice punch list to assist you in mitigating risk when buying out of state rentals.Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core.

Sticking with newer condos (those built in the 2000s) should mitigate (but not completely eliminate) this risk to some degree.

Hey BP,Does anyone have advice for mitigating taxes on fix and and flips?

Now however I've just identified a potentially great rehab (a run down 2 bedroom I can add a 3rd bedroom to) in the same town but, since I live overseas, my question is: are remote rehabs considered too hard / difficult / risky to undertake, even for seasoned pros (which I am not); or can the risks be reasonably mitigated by hiring a good / trustworthy project manager?