I am about ready to just manage myself from out of state and have a couple of local handymen help me out when things come up.

He can spend the next few years-ish getting a finance degree through an online school while working part time, but he just got offered a full time position helping with sales for a local wholesale real estate company. 

Happy to connect and provide you with a list of the local meet ups. my cell and email are below! 

As for offering subject-to financing, this is something that can be advertised under 'seller financing' in our local MLS, and there's investors that search specifically for listings with that marked, so that should introduce your property to a new set of buyers that may not have considered it before.

. -- lots of factors to consider (including your personal strategy), but here are a few high level metrics to compare the most populous zip codes in HuntsvilleWelcome to drop me a message if you are interested in checking out the full report 

Quote from @Gregory Wilson: A few things there, Brendan.First, an LLC with you as a member and your (wife, son, pal, etc.) partner as a 1% member will file a Form 1065 which is about one tenth as likely to be audited by the IRS as a Form 1040 with a Schedule E rental activity (which I presume you will attempt to show is an active business).Second, you want an LLC because when your local Alabama handyman drives his girlfriend's uninsured truck into a van load of U of A medical school interns on I-22 when he goes  to get some shingles for your roof, on your business, you don't lose everything you have or ever will have to an uninsured claim. 

The admin fee is higher than what I have seen in my locality but if it is reasonable, OK. 

I would recommend shopping around, especially with a local mortgage broker.

Since you're still living in the property, you might be able to house hack and keep the lower owner-occupied tax rate—worth confirming with a local tax advisor.

Log beds, solid wood pieces (antique or vintage), antique persian rugs, and decorative items/art that come from the local area.Obviously if you are renting a beach condo, this method doesn't work.