The USD's current greatest strength is not in the USD, it's int he BRICS bickering and self-serving nature for power leverage.

Can you afford the downpayment, brrr costs, keep money in the deal and have sufficient reserves for both properties(i.e 2 years of vacancy/lead times, 75-100% of capex, 3-6 months of random ********?

With 3 units being self managed its hardly worth automating something what may only happen ever couple months or so. 

I am a local realtor in the market and own/self-manage my STRs here.

So you're not really comparing apples to apples here.Also, most likely the syndication/crowdfunding deal you are comparing to is a completely different real-estate asset class than single family (i.e. probably multi-family,office, self storage,mobile home parks or something else).

I am self-employed so it was a challenge just to get a loan in general, not being a traditional W-2, but that was finally overcome.

Many are self proclaimed coaches but only have done SF and not MF and for instance, do not have network of off-market MF deals nor know any wholesalers.

Landlord’s only option to collect funds for damages is to take tenants to court.More and more tenants are only having a portion of their rent covered by S8, so landlords need to still screen S8 applicants for portion they must pay.Landlord cannot charge S8 tenants a portion of shared utilities – which can lead to the infamous tales of tenant retaliation against landlord by blasting heat on high with open windows during winter.S8 caseworker response times can be very slow, as they are usually overworked & underpaid.Again, overall it’s a pretty good deal for a landlord that does some decent screening.Exposing Section 8 Housing | Tenants From hell 243 - YouTubeLiberals Blame this Eviction on Landlord Despite the Before & After Footage | Tenants From Hell 241 - YouTubeMy first Baltimore buy & hold investment - SOLD (Lessons learned) (biggerpockets.com)Besides MANY self-labeled "gurus" exaggerating their success, many of them just supply readily available info.If you're too busy to find the info and are willing to pay for it, no problem as you accept their time vs money solution.REGARDING S8 GURU ISSUES SPECIFICALLYMost of them don't share all the facts about how Section 8 actually works.They claim you can get HIGHER rent from S8 tenants vs private-paying tenants.Why would the government allow our tax dollars to be spent this way?

Welcome to the land of self employment

Your existing REI background will be sufficient for any lender.