It doesn't help that interest rates are relatively high compared to the last few years and seem to be going up with the new inflation news and such. 

Are you agent yourself and what makes you say that you'll avoid buying a home under 1000 sqaure feet again? 

I can do the parade of horribles for a personally owned rental property but suffice it to say that it is a long and robust parade and the horribles are horrible.

Are they a start-up, do they have any operational, how do they do at it, etc etc.. 

Similarly, if you put several Class D tenants in a Class A 4-plex, what do you think will happen to the property?

Thanks @Jack Beker, will look forward to do so, I appreciate it

What are other options do we have if we don't have piror experience? 

There's no workaround for bringing it in house.

I was thinking about buying the land (maybe it is 20-30k for the .25 acre lot), finding a builder in the area, and seeing if I could build a ~1,250 sq ft 3/2 single family house and see if I could make the math work. 

-Why don't you ask your current PMC if they can do the same thing?