I do not think anyone in Cleveland will do a good job. 

This means your tenants' private-sector jobs will eventually end.

PMs and realtors want to use people they know that have been in the business and do a good job for them.

A great way to get started if you currently have a W2 job is to buy a house hack like a duplex or a fourplex where you can move into one of the units and continue to rent/manage the other units.

Yes, for sure - send me a message whenever you've got some time. 

We have been working in the affordable housing space for some time, and this allowed us to partner with the local community and provide a housing solution they need as their city continues to expand with new jobs they are successfully bringing to town.

Was something mitigating the noise at that time that you could use now?

And, if you are going to buy someone's time and expertise to train you, DO THE WORK. 

I have a property on a Lake in ND that will post for the first time in the next 2 weeks. 

If you do not qualify, you would then look into if you would qualify with renting your departing residence. 75% of the lease will be used to offset that departing residence mortgage. as you mentioned the timing of renting the place can absolutely be tricky so you would hope you do not have to do this.Finally, and I guess would be sorta of a trick, but we do bridge loans on occasion in this case IF you can qualify once you get the property rented at market value even if debt to income ratio is too high before it is rented.