One question comes to mind reading the "hire a PM to scale easily" vs the "PM yourself with few units", and maybe it's from my service business background, but it seems there is a middle ground that hasn't been mentioned.

In my latest sale, even though I could have easily added the egress for a 3rd, my agent simply planted the suggestion for another bedroom in the ad. 

Gregg posted a great article with information into one of the more popular markets (Conway) just announcing a win for property owners.

This is especially important as deal flow picks up and competition increases—cutting corners on expense assumptions might win a deal, but it could lead to major headaches down the line.

If you are over leveraged, aren't prepared/don't have a plan to get out, you will get burned easily.

I know a guy who looks like me who has a podcast and youtube channel and membership group, you have paperstac videos, @Jamie Bateman does one on one mentoring, @Dan Deppen has a due diligence course.PS: One note investor with initials SC who has lots of youtube - be careful and you can easily check his reviews out on BP

Both Guesty and Track let you set this up easily.  

Although I believe I can see the path to my first rental easily, I'm having a hard time figuring out how I'd get to the next one. 

Not saying they are bad deal but that one party always has the the win win scenario. 

I've had several wins that way; nice as it offsets those losses that are bound to happen with repair expenses!