Since I enjoy the management and improvements and tools and growing a business, I chose to acquire my own properties.As for whether syndication is the "best way" ... it's totally whether the syndicator is good or not. 

Or sometime we acquire properties and have the agents market the pocket listings for us.

Mandating how a product/service is conveyed to the public NEVER works to lower cost of goods to public, EVER.   

Wholesaling would be signing up for a job that will make you hate real estate and waste money (even though your sales background would help, I would use it to acquire for yourself later), so house hacking is a great option because you learn landlording.

Quote from @Kevin Hilton: I am looking to acquire my 4th rental property, but I would like some advice from all of the seasoned investors in this forum. 

I own rental property but I have had them for a while. I am now looking at a property that is tenant occupied going to a month-to-month in November. Its a long term tenant who has not expressed interest in leaving. Th...

You can then GC the project yourself and let them help be eyes and ears and offer you the speed to get the projects done on time.As for financing, I had great success using a commercial loan product with a small community bank.

What type of lender or product should I consider?

I intend to relocate to the Rapid City, SD region in April/May for work, and I plan to acquire a primary residence that could eventually be transformed into an investment property.

There are DSCR products for those scenarios, but they generally price worse than regular DSCRs.