I guess my challenge right now is to define the strategy and balance all the factors, such as job and population growth (value increase), cashflow (demand & supply market, interest rate, property tax, maintenance cost), and risk control (insurance etc). 

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.

@Peter W.From my experience, a second-home investment strategy works best when you meet lender conditions like owner occupancy and rental restrictions.

If you want out, you have to either sell low enough where the numbers make sense or one of these other creative strategies.

This strategy works much better either the lower price point homes.    

Look at their marketing 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.

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

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.