Is it wise to fly out to meet with potential property managers for just as you would to meet with brokers?

You can likely get your mom's property on favorable terms that you may not find anywhere else, that's also a big potential benefit.As David Greene has shown, investing out of state can be done safely, profitably and sustainably.  

Regardless, i would not advise or ever recommend such potentially fraudulent behavior.

Consider multiple funding options: a) as @Mike Dorneman stated, look into cash out / refi on your first investment property , b) Look into potentially getting a HELOC on it, c) some owners may consider owner-financing, d) bring a money partner inAnd then take action and start looking for residential multi (2-4 units).

I've been analyzing potential deals about 5 per day for about 4 weeks.

I got a coffee date with a real estate extraordinaire I really look up to! I’m working on developing my own list of questions but I’d love to hear other opinions.

What do you wish you could ask a real estate expert ...

For control purposes, they rather not give out info to prevent collusions between bank officers and potential bidders and buyers.

I add 15% to my Rehab budget to cover potential cost over runs and delays.  

Personally if I see a potential lead that way I would rather call then send a letter.

I learned how to focus on getting the job done and because I wasn't a threat to the end client's W-2 employees (I could never get promoted to the corner office), I could get away with ignoring office politics.