You need the right solution for your day to day operations.Your need is to make the management side easy, so that you can analysis your accounting, business and management all with only one entry.

For now, staying local allows me to leverage my property management experience—most of which came from working directly for family and close business associates who were property managers, contractors, and business owners.

Tell her George at Illinois REIA recommended her.That being said perform your due diligence.

I have experience investing (own 2 STRs and an assisted living home+business).

Turning a historic duplex into a high-performing asset while forcing $100k in appreciation is no small feat—seriously impressive. 

So, yes, you can absolutely have a great rental business as an out of state ( and even international ) investor, as long as you have a solid team that are your boots on the ground. 

I only pay for BP leads and all other business comes from my sphere/referrals. 

Tapping into that equity through a HELOC or cash-out refinance and reinvesting in higher-performing assets could improve their ROI significantly.

You could just invest in a fund that should out performed what you are doing. 

No Specific Performance": Without the remedy of specific performance, you can’t require the seller to clear the title and complete the sale.