I completely agree that I'll need to have someone on board to give me credibility, and luckily I've found an awesome mentor in my local area who has a lot of experience acquiring out of state properties.

You don't have to be nice or on board, sometimes my head gets really high in the clouds

There are a few things in the regulation that need tweaking but overall, everyone was on board. 

Some lenders may not like this, some don't care.I'm onboard with @Bob Green though.

It is not difficult to serve a deadbeat tenant; there are numerous tricks to get a tenant's new address (some discussed on BP) if you have done your due diligence upon on boarding and collected enough data on this person during that process. 

Albeit there maybe a few that are willing to I am on board with @Joe Villeneuve why not do a mortgage?  

One of them is on board the other is going to take some selling.

Should I get a hard money investor on board or pay for it myself as I go with my salary?

At our company we like our clients to be involved as much as they want to be with the expectation of trust in our expertise for certain operational factors.Also, if the turnkey company has well-established policies in place for leasing, resident on-boarding, standardization of renovation approach (replacing capex items first and foremost), and property management, then they could be a good option for investors.Also, look to see if they have warranties in place to cover the renovations they have completed on the property.

Rentals have been a hot market with tons of amateurs and major investors jumping on board.