You will get a lot of responses and many won’t be a good fit, but over time I’ve stream lined my process and usually have a place rented in about 4-5 days.

Kids are always going to attend college = continuous rental stream.

The stream lined approach that you shared sounds great to me.

Quick overview: FHA/203K stream line LOAN at 4.25%purchased a duplex for $299k in Boonton NJ. 203k at $19,800 on chimney repair, roof, and miscPITI + MIP $2,771Rent: 1,700First water/sewage bill is $78 per quarterEstimated rehab cost is around$50k ish and I am hoping to do all the updates within the first year.

While I would love to buy my first STR in the Pigeon Forge area it is too rich for my blood at this point in my life.

You will learn more from them than you could imagine.At a wedding for one of these guys' kids, he told me I was as much as a son to him as any of his blood children.

Would working with a property manager also be helpful in terms of making the income stream as passive as possible if the costs aren't that high?

The draw is that you can buy at the capitalized value of today's income stream, strip the LURA and convert to market rate at significantly higher rents. 

The person worth 10 million likely has many other revenue streams going to make up the 200k loss in a short period of time.

The reality is that as a C/D landlord you should not be swimming up stream against the current.