I am a highly motivated individual, however, and I'm dedicated to getting into real estate investing.  

My answer would certainly be highly dependent on his own emotional make up, his desire to relax and travel, his willingness to delegate and outsource, etc.

Your income isn't high enough for it to make sense as a rental and the closer you get to your residence limit the greater pressure you will have to sell it before losing your exclusion in whole or part. 500k right now can make $15k per year income with zero maintenance or tenant risks. 

Before bigger pockets moved the rent estimator to pro users only it estimated rent to be around $975 I don't know or have anything to go by but I thought that was high.

I would highly recommend sticking to the 30 year option or not doing it at all. 

Even though interest rates are high, we have a big Mircron plant coming here as part of the CHIPS act so that could boost housing demand in the coming years.I don't know the SYR market, but I did a quick search for duplexes somewhat outside of the city, and found this: https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/7300-Lakes....

I would highly recommend you create an LP agreement.

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.

Purchased a little too high at the buy (I knew it at the time too), does a little better than breaking even on cashflow, and took too long to rehab.

The most common answer, especially in recent times, is highly levered, floating rate debt.This is not the only answer, by any means.