I'm born and raised in Houston and now work with a full service long-term rental management managing over 300 doors - all SF or MU (up to 4 unit).

One thing I'll add to an off-market deal is you might find a seller willing to do seller financing.You said, "I don't think the time exchanged to manage SFH would be worth my time and the cash flow most likely wouldn't be reasonable enough to hire a property manager.

My partner and I have a couple units we manage as well in Washington DC.

This could work well if you’re looking for steady monthly returns and don’t mind managing tenants (or hiring a property manager).Selling could also make sense if you’d rather use the $500,000 to diversify into other investments, like buying multiple properties or even a short-term rental on the lake as you mentioned.

It was all really quick, and the time to complete everything happened a lot faster than I expected (which was a good thing).I was worried at first that I had to use all the partners that Rent to Retirement had, but it was really easy for me to shop around for different lenders with different terms and rates, insurance providers, and property management company.

Top 3 reasons owners hire PMCs:1) No time to manage correctly2) No time to learn how to manage correcly: laws, documents, processes, etc.3) They're too nice and need someone to "save them from themselves"A good PMC can usually earn their fees by better managing the property/tenant than the owner, thereby:1) Increasing owners net profit2) Decreasing owner's time commitment, stress, headaches, etc.No matter what though, you should always plan to commit a couple of hours a month to manage your PMC.

that we’ve learned in our 24 years, managing almost 700 doors across the Metro Detroit area, including almost 100 S8 leases.

I say that because every decent legit place I know of in market, yes offers the option of doing just tenant placement, for self-managing. 

You will learn the time and effort required of managing such a unit.  

@Kyle Cross you claim to know a lot about the industry, but your questions are vague and so is the info you've provided.Not sure how managing 8 units doesn't, "require much management"?