@NA NASince this is your first purchase, focus on finding a property where the numbers work, rather than just any deal.

Not able to buy in this area without going house poor.

Are you looking to find a home to buy for yourself to live in? 

Not sure how many PMCs you've had bad experiences with, but we'll take exception to:"Then do a thorough research on tenant applicants (note: leaving this to a PM may be hazardous to your financial health)".BP seems to have more threads about screening mistakes by DIY landlords as opposed to PMCs.Now, if you'd have mentioned Maintenance, you'd get no argument from me:) Even the PMC industry acknowledges maintenance as one of the biggest challenges.Rereading my post, I kinda see how I sounded negative toward PMs.  

There are surely STR Facebook groups for this location.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.DM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

Please let me know your thoughts and please poke holes in this idea!

I have had a long term interest in purchasing an investment property and I'm looking to be smarter about this.

Ideally this would be a multi-family property that I can live in and rent out the other units.

Are their listings detailed with good-quality photos?