There's many other options in real estate such as syndication and note investing depending on your level of involvement. 

Understand the fees involved and calculate the total cost for an entire year of management so you can compare the different managers.

Between the two of us, we are pretty involved in real estate.

You don't want to start playing sides here and getting involved in these kinds of debates.

Of course, growing has inherent risks involved.

lol, bro, he's been involved in an attempted murder twice in the last 6 months.

Closing CostsMake sure you also budget for closing costs, which are a collection of fees and payments made to the various parties involved in your transaction.

If you have family get them involved...sell FB marketplace and eBay for a year and they can do that from home.   

You're learning about the eviction process, tenant screening (never "word of mouth" again), the power of a lease WHEN not IF a neutral third party needs to be involved, tenant/landlord laws, and managing tenants who don't care about your business the way you do. 

We are experienced and have never involved anyone in our projects and have never used a loan outside of a conventional mortgage.