As an extreme example to prove my point, lets say you borrow $1 million on a property producing $10,000 in monthly gross rent with the following terms:conventional  residential- 4.5% for 30 years: monthly payment = $5067commercial 6.5% for 15 years: monthly payment = $8,711Keep in mind, this property, even in a modestly expensive state has taxes of 10% and insurance at 5%.

This property also has a potential to produce $1600 dollars in Rent per unit (2 total units at this time).

If you find someone local in the Charlotte area you might be able to work a deal where you lend an experienced investor some money, make some interest, but also have them mentor you in the process they follow from start to finish in using your money to acquire an income producing asset. 

The current owner should produce financials and it sounds like you have those already since you are able to see what the PM is reporting.  

The monthly rent would need to be a minimum 1% of the value of the home to hope to produce any positive cash flow.

But I left the farm and worked in industry, where I earned money from my labor (time --> money) to buy the 2,000 calories a day.I knew that if I saved a portion of my income and invested it in income-producing assets (money --> money), the day would come when the income from those investments would be enough to buy the 2,000 calories a day I need to stay alive (my parents were struggling farmers in what is today the Rust Belt and were always looking for innovative ways to survive financially).

But I would consider splitting that off into the separate unit for a rental when you sell ---  of course you'd want to run the numbers/explore the market to see whether the duplex or SFH would give you the best valuation.In an effort to produce more affordable housing, CA is in favor of garage conversions (amongst other things) to create ADUs ('accessory dwelling units'). 

Your best bet is figuring out which state produces the most out of state buyers for SU. 

Hard to really get into this without any specific details related to the financials regarding each house, but I’d start here...If you need some liquidity, I’d run the cap rates on all my rentals and identify the bottom 3 producing rentals.

My suggestion is to work for a major firm and try to work with a top producer in that office.