One place that will soon become a rental market heaven is an area around Johnstown/ New Albany where a huge Intel plant is under construction with plans for thousands of employees, not to mention the contractors there now. 

Hello, my name is Sergio Vasquez, I am a builder/contractor in British Columbia, Canada.

Granted, I have a 30-person construction crew,  a designer (my wife, so literally in-house), and a plumbing and electrical company that works on my stuff solely. 

My question for the group is would my hours as a contractor also count twoards the needed 750 hours?

Instead you will cash flow right out of the gate and appreciation is faster in those states with TLC properties or adding things like an ADU, or Carriage home on a bigger lot.Most of my investors that live in CA purchase in those states listed above and in most cases its easy to introduce them to local Seasoned realtors Contractors, Handy Men/Women that can help them save money and feel secure about the distance from home to REI.

Dealing with repairs, contractors, tenants etc is something I got sick off.A relative is renting out a garage in some empty lot and the thought crossed my mind of maybe buying some lot for car parking but I havent yet done any research on potential ROI on it yet.

Well, this my opinion, if you like unpredictability, constant change and people/contractors with no regards to you or your property then "YES" flips and STRs are the way to go...LOL....I love it!!! 

If they are, I would pay them off first.I would invest in a different market(likely bigger market) where you can find reliable contractors or find a PM that will be able to manage the properties.

got out of flipping to new construction in our market in columbus ohio. licensed general contractor. when interest rates got high single family existing went down by 30% new builds sold at a 6% increase that year which demonstrated the desire and premium that new construction commands. never looking back. total control, rinse and repeat. we can get permits in 28 days. we can buy land cash in 21 days. we can build in 120 days to 140 days and keep moving. super scalable and easy and no risk. we build the same 2-3 Floorplans 

Do you have a team of contractors yet to help you with these properties?