If the property is close enough, you can also forego the property management and handle it yourself in the short term. 

Building a portfolio allows you to gain experience, develop systems, develop your own approach to managing properties etc.

I have one asst. manager doing book keeping weekly on over 400 units. 

Management treats line employees quite poorly and lying is just part of the job.

I am a fellow investor also looking for my first property but I also have a contracting and property management company.

Quote from @Jeff Roth: Hi Lina from Texas-Congratulations on your interest in investing in mid-term rentals and you are wondering how and where to get started.I get this question frequently from investors.Sometimes and investor is looking to keep their property cashflow positive as insurance and taxes have squeezed cashflow by turning units into mid-term or short-term rentals.First off, ideally, the property will cashflow as a long-term rental should something disrupt the mid-term rental model.You will also want to have the property be near where there would be a demand for mid-term rentals (hospitals, universities, research centers).Monthly rents for mid-term rentals are about 20% (+/-) higher than unfurnished similar long-term rentals.There are property managers that will manage mid-term rentals for you and I always advise my clients to use property managers to keep their investment as passive as possible and for compliance issues related to Fair Housing Laws and local regulations.To Your Success! 

If you plan to self-manage initially in MI but go full management in Detroit, you’ll want a very dialed-in team.

Great, there is a lot of guides and resources on managing properties here, and analyzing deals.

I want to know more about the area and build a team that can help me purchase and manage properties.   

April is the only real low month.It's a funky place -- essentially a 5 room motel (originally built 1959) with a manager's unit (built 1984) tacked onto it.