Columbus, Ohio is a market that combines strong population and job growth, major company expansions like Intel, Amazon, and Google, affordable entry points that hit the 1% rule, positive cash flow, and excellent appreciation potential, which makes managing long-distance or scaling up a lot easier.

Something I'm recognizing is how personal the decision is to form an LLC, increase insurance protection or some combination of the two. 

I'm far from tech-savvy, I think when I set it up, I needed to run it through a PMS to make it work, however, that may have been a function of having 2 properties instead of 1.  

If you combine house-hacking with a "live-in flip" and complete a value add while you live there, you can force a lot of appreciation very quickly.Even if the mortgage payment is double what you would otherwise pay in rent, your housemates are paying a big chunk of it and you will likely be paying less than you would to rent. 

However, I would not sell the assets you own (unless your market is declining).Ideally, you'd use a combination of using the subject property as the collateral and potentially using your owned-assets when/if necessary.

@Jeremy Belandi completely agree with you , the biggest challenge in markets now is not closing deals but to get high quality prequalified consistent leads , and that's my main focus right now , building an entire system not only for lead generation (which you can get online easily even for cheap) but an entire system proven to guarantee good amount of prequalified leads combine cold calling with List pulling, dialer setup, skip tracing, SMS outreach , with trained enough team you can make sure the leads are mostly off market , sellers interested to sell , Asking price is lower than market price , Motivation ,Condition . 

Rent control challenges combined with no longer planning a brrrr resulted in it taking 3 years.In late 2024 (after returning from BOCon), I had invited a full dump on this acquisition on this site (BP).  

That combination of education and relationships will accelerate your progress.

I’m especially curious whether these functions are handled:In-house by local staffOutsourced domesticallyOr handled remotely by trained team membersIf someone were well-trained in property management operations (screening, maintenance coordination, tenant communication, AppFolio/Buildium, etc.) and able to work remotely from Mexico, is that something you’ve:Already implemented?

Or a combination?