Your strategy takes advantage of your employment cash flow and ability to control discretionary spending.  

@Chris Ke With $200K for a down payment and the ability to invest full-time, consider starting with a 4-plex or multiple single-family homes (SFHs) within a 5-hour drive of Los Angeles in areas like San Bernardino or Riverside.

However, this could limit your ability to complete a future 1031 exchange with that property. 

The ability to get funding in just a few days can make a world of difference, allowing investors to act quickly and lock in the best opportunities.I’m curious, in your experience, what strategies have you found most effective for building strong relationships with reliable direct lenders?

If you are a legal property manager in your state the owner should have the unfettered ability to allow you to act as his/her agent to enforce the lease, whatever provisions they may contain plus whatever your state laws allow.

With Baselane I have the ability to do everything from initial vetting of the tenant to drawing up the lease to collecting rent (and issuing deposit refunds!)

You can always get a DSCR loan for the second property which is just an asset based long term loan (based on the rents or expected rents vs your income and personal ability to pay). 

You want the ability to create your own spreadsheet even if you never do. 

You might look into forming your LLC in a state like Wyoming or Nevada where you have an ability to maintain anonymity as well. 

And I feel the ideal portfolio can benefit from the diversification of both.I feel directly owned properties are great because they give me maximum control and the ability to tweak them exactly how I want.