A primary residence will most often provide more favorable loan terms so if you are willing to wait one year while you living in your new property and are comfortable with renting out your primary residence to a tenant, then getting something such as an FHA loan is a good strategy to minimize your upfront costs and hopefully get better loan terms.

I am planning to self manage as well and since there aren't many managers in my area I will likely employ a similar strategy once I decide to outsource the management.

I also notice that @Gregory Schwartz mentioned Huntsville in particular—I definitely think that it’s a strong market for long-term appreciation.As for your concerns about investing out of state, I think an investment strategy that is as close to passive as possible would be best.A do-it-yourself approach—where you acquire a property, place a tenant, interview a bunch of property managers, and handle maintenance yourself—is going to be pretty tough to do remotely.

Sounds like you need an agent and/or contractor based on your strategy. 

What’s been your go-to strategy for finding property managers that really excel?

You'll invoice the tenants on whatever strategy you set up in their leases.

This is where real estate investing turns into a great area and on paper investment strategies seem great, but when applying them to reality, things can quickly change.

When investing in real estate, having multiple exit strategies is key.For a single investment property, make sure the numbers work for both scenarios: 1️) If you decide to sell the home, the deal should produce a solid return. 2️) If you need to rent it out, the rental income should cover expenses and provide a profit.Flexibility is what saves you when things don’t turn out as planned.

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Their business model is interesting and has a couple different exits strategies when getting a property under contract.