The combination of rural, unique, and tiny (sub 400sqft) is going to make this hard to finance.

A 'bird dog' is a 'finder'... and while there are clear cases of advertisers overstepping their bounds into brokerage (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/il-court-of-appeals/1546961.html) there are also (many not so clear) cases where a 'finder' is not a broker (http://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/other-courts/2010/2010-20104.html).I would encourage anyone to browse the last link for 'finder' and also to look at the section 'Quality and Quantity of Services', 'Fiduciary Duty', 'Differences in Entitlement to Fee'.

There are operators all over the country working in this space successfully with the same basic principles.So your caution is fair, and beginners should take it seriously.But the idea that this only works in tiny “no hood” markets doesn’t reflect what I’m seeing on the ground. 

There was only a tiny bit of leakage through the planks to the underlying hardwood.

The firm tried to give investors hope they might recover something in restructuring an investment, but the timeframe was years out and it would be a tiny recovery.

Closer to you, just in case and a known quantity as a vacation spot with 4-6 million visitors a year. 

Here is how we roll...my wife as the designer puts a spreadsheet together with links for each item with costs and quantity. 

Start with a tiny win you can control: pick one neighborhood, one property type, and one rehab level you’ll touch, then run noise-to-numbers on 20 deals and make 2–3 offers this week.

Patience and quality over quantity. 

It has a tiny expense ratio and is currently yielding bascially risk free 4.21%.