I have family in Houston, Dallas, and the Valley, I was networking with brokers in San Antonio, but the Taxes seem to be quite high as well in that State, although much favorable laws/regs on the landlord side.

@Caleb Rehg  I would advise your first step is to search this site for college student rentals and student rentals and read all you can. 

You basically have high growth and low cash flow Columbus OR decent growth and solid cash flow of Cleveland, Dayton, and Cincinnati. 

@Lulu LueHUD has 2 online databases of lenders showing which ones have the most experience with 203k's. 

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.

You can also check their reviews online at Google, Facebook, or Yelp.

Would you recommend hiring a PM for one property?

You should find out what percentage of the rent is being paid by S8 and by the tenant.Tenants have to sign the rent increase and some won't because they don't want their payment portion increasing.It's also highly unlikely a S8 office will approve the huge increase from $797 to $1300.- BTW: the $1300 includes all utilities being paid by the landlord.

It's a balance of cashflow and wealth accumulation.One of the goals is to have tenants pay as much of your cost-of-ownership as possible (loans, taxes, insurance, etc.)In high-cost areas, any Class A or B property you buy will usually negative cashflow for the first 3-5 years, until rents rise enough to cover the negative cashflow + rising taxes & insurance.Investing OOS increases your risks because you may not know the market and you can't check on everything/everyone all the time.If you move forward with your buddies, HIGHLY recommend creating a solid Partnership Agreement!

If renters find out your utility costs are high, they will expect a lower rent to balance it out.