I was thinking of purchasing small multifam 2-4 units with DSCR and using personal loans to cover the 20-25% DP.

We could also go with a private money lender on the $190K - just need to find the person!

Personally, I’ve never had a bad military tenant though.

Really great person to work with. 

Now, I believe the right legal CYA move is to have one LLC for each individual property, but personally, I don't want to keep up with the bookkeeping on that! 

The magical power of a personal guarantee by an officer of the company is that it aligns the spending preferences of the company with those of the guarantor, which will just happen to align with your preferences.Truly an amazing power, in my opinion.

If I'm going to meet investors in person, it would need to be at a real estate meet up in a group setting or after lots of calls/Zooms.

I did some brrrr’s out of my geographical area a couple years back, and I’m starting to regret it.For one a person is at the mercy of the Contractor long distance.

I personally don't like STR's because they are more of a business than an investment(in my opinion).You didn't mention the amount of hours that you and your spouse work but I would have to assume it be between 1900 to 2200 hours assuming you work 48 weeks and between 40 to 50 hours a week.If you buy a STR and self-manage it, you are added 200-300 hours per year in additional work making your life more stressful and less time to do things that you enjoy.Best of luck. 

That sounds like a well-considered plan, and visiting in person is a great first step.