There is a very fine line between "helpful" and "self promotion".

To answer your last question, self management is possible but most people have no idea how difficult it is to self manage a truly successful STR with 60-70% occupancy.

Do your self a favor and use anyone else in the detroit area for your properties.

I BELIEVE it’s just a sticking point not a prohibited one like it is with self directed Ira’s.

I was looking at going the self-managing route due to me having a little more experience and mainly finding a great handy-man and GC in the area to help me if repairs were to come up from the tenant.

Another way of thinking about this is self-managing your property; you wouldn't report "management fees" in expenses and then have that portion in "self-employment" income. 

It looks like a lot of the owners use an outside PM or self-manage from what I can tell on Airbnb. 

My thought ahead of time was similar to you “I want to try these” - thinking I could self install islands of carpet in bedrooms myself and have the ability to patch if needed between tenants.

and worry about their own self employment taxes, insurance, etc.

I also think the problem is often tied up inside a person's self-awareness.