I think that's a great approach I have a lot of clients who self manage have no issues at all.  

Hi,I am an investor in single family homes and am interested to use my equity in them to start investing in multi unit shopping center retail.

I believe local investors, agents, lenders, property managers, and contractors all have valuable insights, especially for someone brand new to Real Estate like my self.

If we rent the unit at $1,425, I have an estimated monthly cashflow of $302 (rent at $1450, cashflow is $325) I DO include vacancy, repairs, and cap exp in my Box2 Expenses.

Buy a 2-4 unit, close to home.

Whether you choose to run screening before you show the unit to them is a personal choice. 

You can 100% use an FHA-203k renovation loan on multi-unit properties up to 4 units. 

If you are attempting to use income for the non-conforming unit, they will need to verify that it can legally be used as a rental unit.

For our second STR, we are currently researching Sherman, potentially / ideally, a less expensive duplex that we could rennovate and self manage from Dallas with workers coming to the area in mind. 

5unit is probably manageable.  20 unit is work I would think.