Kudos to you for doing something to create a secondary income stream. there are 5 income streams in RE rentals, possibly six if you do things a certain way.The reality here is your model (buy box) is suffering from too high an entry and too high a cost of capital.

Now that the six-month seasoning period has ended, I’m considering refinancing the property.

When investing in high cash-flow markets, I always recommend working with an investor friendly agent so you're able to gain the right insight on the different areas and the risks involved.

That gets worse as you get farther out of the cityTLDR: values depreciate, inflation has gone basically nowhere in Japan for a long time, the supply of housing is pretty good compared to demand (unlike the US) and that's because of flexibility with rezoning and development, taxes on rental income are high. 

https://www.har.com/content/department/newsroom?pid=2141Houston Real Estate Highlights for December and Full-Year 2024:
-Following two consecutive years of declines, single-family home sales rebounded in 2024 with 85...

Just be transparent with the sellers that you are licensed and for good grace recommend they use a realtor on their end, although not necessary. 

They also benefit from strong schools, which can be a huge draw for long-term tenants.While you may not achieve high cash flow immediately in these areas, the property values and rents tend to appreciate steadily over time, aligning well with your goals.

You must work at least 750 hours per year in a qualified RE business.So most people who have high-earning W-2 jobs outside of real estate won't qualify.But the unique thing about RE pro status is that even if you don’t qualify but your spouse does, you can both file jointly and claim the losses from your RE investments to offset your other active income together.It's an incredibly powerful benefit if you do meet the criteria.

high interest rates have hurt cash flow and long term rentals are still a great investment... they're just not going to throw off rental income in the first few years of ownership.

Currently, I am looking at Hemlame for local, I tried to use them for an out-of-state investment property, but the cost with an agent would end up far greater than a full-service property manager.The dream option would combine all accounting, bill pay, rent collection, provide eviction services, and maintenance coordination outside of normal hours.