RENT - Self-manage your empire, pick the best tenants you can find, treat them fair and honestly, outsource all the sucky work like clearing toilets or painting at turnover. 

However my long term plan is to minimize the hours I need to spend once I reach my monthly goal via automation and outsourcing. 

I think, if you try to do this, you are totally on your own when it comes to sorting out any confusion that arises, and tax planning and other aspects of home finance that many people choose to outsource. 

Z has outsourced a 3rd party brokerage in our town to do their buying.

After WWII, steel production was outsourced overseas. 

Employment verification costs even more when it has to be performed through employers who outsource using a service such as The Work Number - those services charge upwards of $20 just to spit out a few facts about employment of the applicant. 

Do they outsource maintenance and do they mark maintenance up? 

You can certainly test them and see what you want to do yourself vs. outsourced (like leasing).My summary of such tool:Listing and leasing: Zillow, Tenant Turner, and others (I said “Others” as many platforms can no longer list on Zillow timely and effectively)PM software (lease and esign, rent collection, maintenance etc.): Azibo, Avail, Innago, Apartments.com, Hemlane, Turbotenant, Rentredi, Tenant Cloud, eRentpayment, ZillowRental accounting tool: Azibo, Stessa, REIHub, Quickbooks (not specifically for rentals and pricier though)Rental banking: Azibo, Stessamove-in/move-out inspection: rentcheck

Also, what work are you good at and what do you want to outsource/automate?