Only nonrecourse loans will not affect your personal DTI - if you personally guarantee the debt, you're going to take the DTI hit for it unless you can qualify for it to be excluded.Find a local lender who is skilled in working with self-employed and investor clients and talk through your situation with them. 

I have a condo in Lakewood, CO (26th and Kipling) and have been self-managing for the past 2 years and no longer have the time/energy/patience for self-managing. 

A lot of forum members are experts in their respective fields related to real estate investing, whether that is real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, buy and hold investing, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance.If you haven’t been to it already, the Bigger Pockets blog features links to their fantastic podcast and many great articles: https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

I hope this post provides insight into the self-defeating reality of investing in low-cost locations with static or declining populations.

We did used to live there and self manage those though. 

We currently have 3 long term rentals and are self managing.

Through relentless self-education on platforms like BiggerPockets, networking like crazy (over 200 Zoom calls in 2020!)

The benefit of going conventional is being able to purchase an MFH without the stringent property guidelines, self sufficiency test, and longer escrow on an FHA loan. 

And if you lived out there and could self manage, maybe you're making 200/mo even.From a return standpoint, even at break even, you're gaining 8k a year in depreciation to offset against regular income so maybe 2k there. 

We plan to self-manage and may start self-managing the first property as well.