Our manager looks at employment, rental history.

I would try to maximize revenue through things like additional marketing/platforms for example adding VRBO in addition to Airbnb etc, as well as employing pricing software.

Thus, I have worked 2 jobs (1  is self employment) for 7 years to fund purchasing a few single family homes locally. 20k is not enough to purchase IMO, that should be your savings AFTER your purchase.

Be mindful of short-term capital gains tax, as profits from flips held for less than a year are taxed as ordinary income, and frequent flipping may result in self-employment taxes.While profits from flips do not qualify for 1031 exchanges (since flips are considered inventory, not investment properties), you can minimize your tax burden by deducting allowable expenses like renovation costs, loan interest, and holding expenses.If you're considering diversifying into rentals, explore opportunities to benefit from long-term tax advantages such as depreciation and lower long-term capital gains rates.

They tend to all have good incomes, little to no credit, and are self employed with lots of family.

Tax-wise, profits are taxed at your ordinary income rate, and frequent flips may subject you to self-employment tax if classified as a dealer by the IRS.

Our market is lucrative with a 30k employment Air Force base, healthcare, transportation center, Amazon etc as big employers. 

Your ad should require "proof of income" not proof of employment.

The higher credit, higher income, gainfully employed S8 tenants are choosy about where they live and do not want to live in a bad, high crime area.By buying in an area that appeals to high quality S8 tenants, the arbitrage that you might see between S8 being higher than market might disappear.So that being said, it’s more important to lead by location than strategy.Happy to talk further if you like.  

These are primarily found in cities with a metro population >1M.Pro-business environment: Many cities treat employers as adversaries through restrictive policies.