Underwriting is a crucial aspect of being an investor, as it lets you how much should you be willing to pay for a property based on performance.I had to struggle a lot with underwriting initially.

Note OP here is not talking about managing remotely, he's talking about doing the initial setup remotely. 

So the reason I'm not sure if it's a "like" property is b/c the initial investment was a 173 unit apartment complex worth almost $8M.

I have hope that we initially put our offer in with FHA and then they talked to us and gave us the counter offer of us switching to conventional.

I also believe this is not spam because the buyers took initiative to inquire. 

It sounds like you have already done this part and came up with an investable amount.The end goal - This is usually something like $10,000/Mo. income, in present value dollars.Time frame - The shorter your time frame to reach your goal, the more initial capital and credit you will need.For the rest of this post, I will assume that you want to create a reliable passive income stream that you will not outlive.

@Daniel Smyth thanks For the reassurance that this will be a good step, my initial worry is that I’m starting kind of backwards but knowledge is knowledge and I’m more and more convinced that this is the right route to take.

@Andrew Postell I know that sqft multiplier is not to be relied on for due diligence but for the initial pass (before going on sight, and just looking at pictures on MLS or from wherever) to say...yeah this is worth my time to do due diligence or not.

I've also seen that there are some private and hard money that would do loans to foreigners but they seem much more expensive and they would probably kill the cash flow from the buildings i am looking into.The duplex I own I paid for with my personal line of credit but that limits my buying power by alot.The main reason why I invest in the states is simple, in my area in Canada, gross rent multiplier is about 16-20x, which is not ideal for cash flow.So my question to you is this: does anyone think that it's worth it to get loans with higher interest rates and just go with my initial strategy?

I anticipate using a property manager at least initially.