The drywall can be easily fixed by a little spakle.

@Curtis Lipsey @Sarah Lindberg  If you know what you're doing and approach virtual real estate deals using a safe strategy, you can work deals as easily as if you were working them in your own neighborhoods. 

And then pulled a Google street view photo:Does this look like the bustling office of a company that's done thousands of loans and can easily whip out a $100 million+ loan in a matter of days?

A lot of us in Northern NJ have set up in Philly for investing because the prices are solid and it is drivable easily from here.

A 250k property in my market will easily gross 40k per year self managed. 

Combine all that together and it’s easily over $1000 in savings a month. 

They could easily (now or in the future) give you access to capital to do deals.Spending the next 6-12 months working for free for someone will give you tons of future value to your future investing self.Don't be so quick to try to go at it alone.

I've seen people easily sell something bought just a couple of years ago and walk away with over a 100k.

You don't run into insurance issues, you have a much safer electrical system, and you have a system that is easily upgraded in the future.  

If you are putting $150,000 down, you should be able to positive cash flow pretty easily.