The two strategies you outlined are extremely helpful to consider..

of course he may have been a clueless dude in Indy and other markets and to me the money he was making just blinded him and his wife.. the move to Portugal was strategic to the extreme.

It's obviously a lot more complicated to compare the different business models, making the blanket statement "Us commishes are 3x higher" extremely flawed logic.

Right now there are definitely more units available than average, but they aren't staying on the market for extremely long.

I've seen people on FB advertise cold calling services which seems interesting.

So your tenant pool is extremely important if not the most important thing to look at when investing in NJ.

Just like our BANKERS validate and question our deal analysis, you need to be the BANKER.Majority of the Syndication failures going on right now are due to either Short-term financing used on longer term projects- in a period of extreme interest rate hikes, material Inflation, or Covid related supply chain or personnel issues.You as the BANKER, know that all of the above should have been covered by the Syndicator and by you the BANKER. 

However, Northern Utah seems to me an extremely hot market right now, with deals closing before they can even hit the MLS.

It's extremely frustrating but perhaps/hopefully it has made me a better investor? 

Go to Etsy and search for "rental property tracker," and you will find hundreds of nice spreadsheets to track 10-20 rentals, usually for under $10.Software has extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button, and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.