Ideally, they are provided by a company that owns, renovates, and manages the property all in house for you. 

If my research is correct if I just buy a house not renovated I just pay the Asking price and no tax.

If I you are indeed going to be renovating a property it will take you 2 times longer on your first deal and the added stress and cost in traveling will put stress on your numbers.You didn't mention what your cash available is to get going but you will likely need to put 20% down to purchase and have a way to finance the repairs.... 

What is the cheapest and most reliable source of funding for real estate investing outside the normal FHA203K and Fannie Mae Homestyle Renovation?

However, that ONLY applies if you are building or renovating today!

Further, I figure that with a larger building I can afford to have property management and would not have to worry about being physical present at the building very often.

You'd likely be able to increase rents for that property with renovations, but the higher quality tenants would be hard to come by.

If you have expertise in construction, you might want to analyze your CapEx more carefully with one of the worksheets I've seen posted on BP, over a timeframe of say, 20 years, after your initial renovation.

I am trying to do more additions or total gut jobs than minor renovations.

It's actually a disservice to the seller and poor negotiating skills of the listing company.These larger companies often have very large overhead costs and must keep transacting to survive.I run a different model at my firm.