Recently, we had an issue where a mid-term tenant moved in and only raised concerns about the property several days after arrival.

When we first arrived, we didn’t know much about the city, so we got to know it by going out and exploring different areas.

My schedule at that time:  wake up at 5:00AM,  do landlording stuff till 9:00. 

Also join the Fbook group  Upstate NY Real Estate Investors  lot of good stuff there.

I'm assuming there's lots of stuff out there that's way cheaper.I originally wanted to just buy a couple lists of 10k numbers each of targeted motivated sellers, and then hand them off to a VA company that will dial them, but I was told it'll be a much better business if I get proficient myself and then hire my own VA's and train them.

Wow, thats good stuff. 

Do you want to send your handyman to check stuff out in someone's rental unit? 

There should be other options, however with an LLC and fourplex - yes, DSCR is by far most likely to be your best option unless you do the heavy lifting with local banks and credit unions (and these are increasingly not great options for this type of stuff as they move painfully slow and are under lots of regulations and restrictions)2) I haven't yet reached out local banks, but seeing the quotes from brokers makes me wondering if Banks may be better? 

The reason they're doing so is because they want to buy other stuff. 

If so no need to remodel beyond putting in rental tough stuff like hardwood floors.