Particularly for luxury or higher revenue rentals (let's say above $75-100k in gross annual revenue) a 25-30% management fee equals a full time  employee wage/salary.

To make matters more challenging, my area has a low wage standard, making it tough to find opportunities that pay more than $10 an hour.

You MAY be able to garnish wages, BUT most tenants may not earn enough to do that and that may not be an option in all states.

We need inflation to trend down, but so far signals are “mixed. ” Counterintuitively, it seems wage growth has begun to outpace inflation growth, for much of the last 12 months (or has inflation merely seeped into wages?).

He mentioned to me that I should liquidate most of my assets so that I could qualify for loans such as FHA and similar types since those are more for lower income earners.

It wasn't his fault, he is just more tailored to the average W2 earners tax return.Your thoughts about whether they should be in state or not will be up to you.

Certainly paying them a wage or fee reduces your rental income... but then they have to recognize that income (perhaps at a lower tax rate?).

We did not need help in deciding what our investment niche would be; we needed help in creating and implementing a tax strategy plan for a married couple composed of a high-income earner and a real estate agent and business owner.A few weeks after paying the $25k, we set up our first meeting with our assigned CPA and started the so-called “advanced tax courses” provided, which are generic modules that only vaguely introduce financial concepts, topics, and terminology.

They work, pay rent, and have to budget their $1-over-minimum-wage job just like everyone else. 

Massive CUTS to minimum wage.