The syndications that are going belly up right now are mostly people that overpaid, leverage bad debt, and unexperienced operators.

The whole point of the AMC is to eliminate exactly what you are looking to do. so, no, you do not have a choice. 

I got into it initially to eliminate having to integrate my bank with Quickbooks but rather have both of those pieces together in one place.

Were looking for tenure (15+ years) - that right there eliminates 80%+ of the list....

A lease to own approach will depend on how much Seller wants to cash out and eliminate the property liability.Good luck!

Any way to eliminate one or more of these manual steps?

We want to begin by house hacking with a duplex in order to eliminate our current rent payment and have more cash to invest. 

Receiving government guaranteed rent every month is priceless and hugely eliminates risk for out-of-state and out-of-country investors.

Property management will only reduce the time, effort and headaches you put into it; not eliminate it.Given the situation you’ve described, I think selling it all at once and placing the profits into an immediate annuity sounds like a good idea.

When something goes belly up many investors first thought is to sue and sue because they were “hoodwinked”( according to themselves).