Also a weird caveat is that in order to count rental income on any FHA property to offset the mortgage for your DTI calculations on the next approval, the properties have to be more than 100 miles away. 

A major incentive for sellers (and buyers) is an assumable mortgage often at nearly half current mortgage interest rates. - Shorter duration and term.

It is possible to self manage since this is only few miles from my house however I did want to account for PM fees in case I needed someone else to manage. 

Once you get to around $14k you're going to scale up to $37% but you can deduct half the expenses and depreciation which will reduce your taxable amount of income..again without knowing the income this is not possible to calculate.   

The properties I see the price near my area is around or above 100% of unit price (half the mortgage + @) so I don't see a reason to start with duplex. 

Court is at 10:30AM for about an hour and half.

@David Rutledge I don't doubt it, but it's a town of about 20,000 people, and aside from this thing a number of miles away called the Pro Football Hall of Fame, there really isn't anything that spectacular to draw tourism in the area... it must all be corporate and maybe kids returning to visit their elderly parents? 

Most have loans at half of today’s rates.  

There are several notable Non-QM lenders that offer reasonable terms on 5-8 units and very strong borrowers (with half the networth of the amount they're seeking to borrow) can go up to 29 units. 

Here are pockets I focus on for cash flow:West side - West boulevard, Cudell, Clark-Fulton, Jefferson, Bellaire-Puritas, Old BrooklynEast side - Fairfax, Buckeye-Shaker (the north side), Waterloo Arts District, Garfield Heights, Maple Heights, Newburgh Heights, Lee-Miles (the north side), BedfordHere are the areas that I focus on for appreciation:West side - Lakewood, Edgewater, Old Brooklyn, Ohio City, Tremont (above 490)East side - Buckeye-Shaker (the north side), Waterloo Arts District, Fairfax*I have a graded neighborhood map of these areas as well if you would like to check it out.