Then do a thorough research on tenant applicants (note: leaving this to a PM may be hazardous to your financial health) and choose the one that is most “stable” with the best potential for long term tenancy.This advice is contrary to maximization of rental income, but IMO will reduce expenses of tenant turnover, property damage, property management fees so much that the difference in bottom line income will be quite small.  

Small multi-family is hot right now due to house-hacking (low barrier of entry), and future cash-flow. 

I own a couple vacant lots and looking to purchase more in a small area. 2/1s in Memphis, as far as I know, are as desirable as in a bigger market.

Have you considered collaborating with them where you could pool your resources and directly benefit from their experience?

Throughout my back and forth with real estate, I've always come back to small multifamily properties.

I will be quick to admit I have only had experiences with small rentals (6 units and smaller) so if you are looking for help on larger apartment complexes I would not be a great resource.

The small one man operations always end like this.

My suggestion if your goal is to free up some equity to use for another purchase - start small with the single family home with a cash out refinance.

I just completed a small subdivision myself - just a word of advice that if you do sell any of these you'll need a release of mortgage from your current lender to do so.

There are definitely some hiccups with it being a small company, but I do have to say that their response time on tickets is really fast.