By house hacking, you're immediately positioned as a landlord, which will adequately pressure you to learn how to structure your leases, screen applications, collect rental payments, resolve the nuances of managing tenants and addressing property issues, etc.

The Property Manager usually does light cleaning and repairs between tenants.Recommendations or another way to think about this? 

I am curious to learn how these operations are managed from abroad.From what I've seen, it's 100% possible to invest in real estate in the United States remotely.

Is it Leasing, Property Management, Vendor Management, Operations, Finance, Accounting... 

Drunk guests would make me nervous.I also manage short term rentals, but don't do weddings.

.- They can rent by the room and self-manage to produce day 1 cash flow.- Many of these HCOL areas also have strict limitations on AirBnB or short-term rentals... that do not apply to owner-occupants - thus allowing for extreme cashflow potential for house-hackers.

A scenario like that would likely result in getting your entire investment back upon refi and also a nice cash-flowing rental to manage.   

I have one rental in RB and a few in Memphis which i will probably be selling soon since I can't seem to find a property management company that I wouldn't mind working with.

Start as a co-host and work under a vacation rental management company in the area to learn the ropes.

As you suggest lowering down payment to buy more properties is one way, although the downside is greater risk in event of down cycle and more time to manage required.