I have five houses in Memphis area, and the biggest problem has been finding a good property management company. 

Their pro formas felt optimistic with providing 6% annual appreciation and property management that is only about 6% of rent so I take it with a grain of salt (they offer their own property management services but it has terrible reviews on Yelp so I would probably go with someone else). 

Self-Employment Opportunities: Would it make sense to start a side business related to my rental properties (such as property management) to access more deductions?

They will look at the ENTIRE cost of the project and calculate what they can offer you in loan amount.

Hello everyone I am wondering how everyone is doing with their fix and flip projects.

Don’t have the time to do property management right now however as I have a full time W2 (accredited investor) and a family to raise. 

Don't change jobs or income yet.Once you do and you think you can manage the payments based on your new income, maybe once you get the rooms rented.Then if you want to switch there are plenty of opportunities. 

So now an employer has the affordability to afford the coach/teacher manager and the over-sized staffing.

So I am assuming you were the lender on these properties and they did not manage them well and they went into foreclosure.

There are some types of trusts that bring a lot of protection, but you generally lose control of your assets and they are managed by someone else.