I am a CPA myself but practice audit. 

Next let’s talk about their shady business practices.

Wanted to get some practice by reaching out to professionals to get insight and to make sure we are asking the right questions and looking at this from all angles before we start our first out of town flip.We likely won’t go through with this one and will take your advice and start off smaller scale.

So, in a practical sense, "it ain't happening" unless you use an unsophisticated private lender. 

It's become common practice with these syndication education programs to use misleading websites listing the mentors as a member of an "advisory board" while listing transactions in a manner that's intentionally vague and intending to mislead potential investors on the track record and of the capital raiser. 

As a local landlord, my practice was to personally change out the HVAC filters every month, so the HVAC units had a longer life-span, but it also gave me a chance to do an inspection of my property every month.

One practical tip: if you're close to qualifying for REP but not quite there, consider focusing your cost seg on the commercial buildings and 4-plex first.

Practical way to handle this:Pull the municipal requirements for each property addressSeparate LTR and STR compliance checklistsConfirm your insurance policies explicitly allow the current useDocument compliance rather than assuming itTools can help track this, but they don’t replace understanding what your local jurisdiction actually requires.

From a practical standpoint the typical asset size means most opportunities are reserved for syndications, REITS, etc. who are capitalized for the investment size and possess the sophistication to manage the operation side of the business whether through direct management or 3rd party participation.

Once you have:A leaseProven rentA refinance timelinethen tools like portfolio loans, DSCR, local banks, or even private money start to make sense in a practical way.The Midwest markets you mentioned are solid learning markets.Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Pittsburgh all have workable price-to-rent ratios — the difference maker is less “which city” and more:Submarket selectionRehab disciplineTeam quality (agent + PM + contractor)One thing I’ll add for awareness: I’m a real estate agent based in Memphis, TN, and I help a lot of out-of-state investors execute exactly this kind of long-term, cosmetic BRRR strategy.