I'm curious with you and your wife, how did you decide it was worth it to put the 50% down and purchase?

I would like to start close to home as I plan to self manage the rental side of it.

You can wargame scenarios to decide what you think is best.On the other hand, that is a pretty sizeable rehab budget. 

I manage around 400 rentals and probably terminate a couple dozen every year for lease violations.

I'm a local investor, flipper, and property management company owner.  

We manage several multi-family properties in FW. 

Long distance investing/managing is an obvious for me since I move every couple years, but I retire from the Navy in 5-7 years, and I'll finally settle in one place. 

Class A apartments have numerous amenities, professional management, and sit in desirable neighborhoods.

This will save you time and effort, as you won’t have to travel long distances to manage different properties or handle tenant issues.For your first investment, I suggest starting with 2-4 unit properties.

I has two GREAT property managers that immediately come to mind, one handling 5 high end high rise condos I owned in Phoenix and the other one handling a 12 unit very lower end apartment building I owned in Arlington, Texas.