I reside with my family in Matthews, NC. 

Since you are looking for cash flow mostly, you should consider multi family property.

Willing to give up nights and weekends with your family? 

If I were in your shoes, I’d focus on house hacking in Phoenix by exploring multi-family properties or using the BRRRR strategy with undervalued single-family homes.

Plus by taking long-term debt you have more flexibility (emergency case here) of a couple hundred if you came into financial difficulty. 

It could be owning multiple single-family homes, an apartment complex, or both.

Bit of a long story, but my partner and I are trying to purchase a property from a family friend of mine and we're having trouble locating the last seller.

As big as you are, you should consider moving the properties into multiple LLCs (my personal rule is no more than $1M in single familys in one LLC, but this may need to be higher in your area). 

Had family rent from us and they were open to the updates being done while they were residing in the property.

Can you count purchases made by friends/family as expenses?