My original plan was to utilize a real estate agent to be my property manager that I met through a Dave Ramsey referral program, but I'm exploring if I should attempt this on my own.  

Many buyers/investors are using this strategy to invest in real estate.- get into real estate with a lower rate and lesser percentage down payment.

Look up Michael Drew (Real Estate Done 4 U).

Quote from @Kaushik Sarkar: I’m exploring strategies to scale my real estate portfolio given the current mortgage rate Not sure much makes sense at 11%...Ouch....tough enough at 7.5%   Might have to put more than 20% down to finance....maybe 30% in North Texas.   

Real Estate Investing can be an exciting and rewarding venture, offering the potential for significant financial returns and the opportunity to create wealth over time.

I'm curious and would like to learn what’s working right now in real-world situations.What strategies or systems have you put in place (or should have put in place) that actually work. 

A lot of people tend to mingle these things when they talk about "break even" or "cap rate", but that leads to a lot of confusion.Let's use some real numbers which may be easier to understand. 

Your VA loan will be crucial to your real estate investing growth, especially since it affords you the potential opportunity to own more than one property, depending on your overall allotment.For active military personnel, that conundrum of where to invest and where you will end up is always part of the issue that sometimes causes analysis paralysis so it's great you have one in VA Beach already.

@Tom Wong & @Kevin Ing - my real estate partner is in and from Hawaii. 

Are these real numbers?