It will all depend what you feel comfortable in terms of budgeting and the type of repairs needed.

Depends who you ask and how secure you feel about your income On the one hand being debt free is great, but leverage allows us to build our wealth quicker.RE investors are notorious for being cash poor, so I would avoid thatIf youre able to comfortably save 100k a year and have enough reserves, I think buying leveraged properties is the best way to scale.You could kill two birds with one stone theoreticallyThey say paying an extra month a year towards principal saves you 7 years on a 30 year fixed mortgageUsing that logic you can add 2+ months a year on your primary, and buy 1 property a year and keep enough reserves. 

Ensure the STR’s projected income comfortably covers new debt, even with conservative occupancy rates, and maintain reserves for market changes or vacancies.

They took a lot of risks that I wouldn't be comfortable taking.

Sometimes the lofts are large enough that you can stand up comfortably, other times they're two mattess on the floor and you have to crawl in from the ladder. 

. —- Again I’m not saying you have to do these things; it all depends what type of investor you are and what you are looking for however it is important to understand that if you shift the responsibility of either identifying the invest property or managing or any other aspect there WILL be a trade off — in this case the turnkey company has delivered on your goal of 8-9% ROI (projected... so TBC) and in return you have traded some of the other benefits of investing in RE for the convenience of not having to do much more than to look over the properties they have sent you and funding it from the comfort of your home, office, etc. ... again if this is the goal then you are on point but if the goal is to also partake in ALL of the other benefits of RE then you should understand that and not be surprised that it’s not a ‘stellar’ investment that checks all the boxes.

I would study the different real estate investing techniques that you could comfortably afford to get into and find the one that interests you the most and go for it.

Face the fear--get yourself in front of more sellers.Little by little, your presentations will become more comfortable, and your success rate will increase.  

Get out of your comfort zone.

Establishing a relationship and building trust is the only true way for either party to feel comfortable as both have been burned from untrustworthy individuals in this business.