If your purchase appraisal goes smoothly, likely so will the refi appraisal.

The seller's agent always has the seller's portion of the work to do (showings, presenting/interpreting offers, communicating with the owner/tenants to make sure inspections/appraisal goes smoothly, making sure the title company has everything to close, etc) which warrants that half of the commission. 

I've furnished a 2/2 remotely and it was very smooth, but I had done 10+ before that so had a tight process and shopping list.

Whenever you are buying a property out of state you should do a few things to ensure it's as smooth as possible.Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core.

As far as investing these areas are nicer areas for you to stay in with relatively smooth drives to most of the areas you should be considering investing in.

Haha I feel like that could be a real possibility seeing as though the only place I would know where to advertise my place would be airbnb.com....In addition, some of you mentioned that you have remote properties that get managed by your team and it's pretty smooth sailing...how did you develop your team and what exactly are they in charge of?

I updated it, increased the rents, wrote an updated agreement, and got it sailing smooth in less than nine months.

The whole process was generally smooth.

Don't buy smooth texture it scratches too easy.

I see the management going, hopefully, more smoothly and the multiple exit strategies good to help in case of issues as I get started.I am just now getting an idea of pricing in the different neighborhoods here and determining rents I can expect to help in my analysis.I may be back with questions but wanted to say hello.