I'm still in early days of building up my business (and my experience... and my confidence), but I think I would be a good property manager if I were to scale.

Usually always doing maintenance or thinking about what needs to be done.If you want to run a profitable business you look for the best location that provides the best return (cashflow/appreciation) for you, depth of teams (cleaners/maintenance) and it is easy to setup systems so you can grow and scale. 

Use a consistent naming convention - ex. 2024.03.25 Home Depot3 Maintain proper records - Contracts, Settlement Statements, Agreements, Promissory Notes etc.Additionally, you can track income and expenses consistently, using software or spreadsheets.As you scale, if bookkeeping isn't fun for you, consider hiring a bookkeeper for a couple hundred bucks per month.

My goal is to leave stressful W2 job within 5 years or scale down to working on part-time/contract basis. 

I don't think as just a single investor it's something I can do at my own, at scale.

It's mainly a sliding scale up and down so pick which works best for your strategy. 

Scaling is appropriate if you know how to measure your risk. 

Yes, I could scale up quicker because of the low costs, but I'd much rather have a smaller portfolio of higher-profit units.If you intend to self-manage the property, I'd immediately cross out everything that is more than an hour drive away.

If you are scaling quickly, you may want to consider this decision carefully as it is not fun to switch.

I forego better "cashflow" opportunities, but look for greater appreciation opportunities - they're generally on a linear "scale", opposite from each other, but blend as you slide along that scale.By setting your buy-box, you can at least narrow down your search.