I have a recommendation for a nice PM that does really well. 

Does anybody here recommend any mentors/resources/tools/or has experience doing it themselves and would be open to connecting? 

Do you recommend it?

I’d recommend saving that $295 cash flow for some amount of time until you have considerable cash reserves saved up.

I would highly recommend @River Sava over there, she's great. 

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

My wife and I started managing more properties for others as word of mouth recommendations started and we started to use the management and arbitrage cash flow to acquire our own properties and fund the BRRRs we were working on.  

I strongly recommend getting involved with your local REI meetup groups so you can work out your pitch with help from other landlords.I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way without tone or facial expressions behind it. 

BiggerPockets also has a calculator to analyze deals, and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy.

If they are CF positive then they will not cohnt against your DTI but will improve it...that's standard conventional guidelines barring a few exceptions.