For them, they'll just be scaling up.Also, signs are cheap and just used test the waters and see what kind of preleases they can get.

I could just get 9 more properties and pay them off one by one, but I'm greedy (I have no problem admitting that) and I'd like to scale a bit faster. 

On a small scale, find a make and model that you know will do well here and you're comfortable learning about.

I have in mind that once I scale up more and more, I'd like to try and stay below 5% of the total rental income to pay someone to help me.  

It might be something to do with larger-scale economic factors (city heavily relies on a large employer/industry sector), or might be due to some sort of new local issue, or, again on the employer bit, maybe there's a large number of military families living there that are being transferred (I'm not military, that might not be realistic).Whatever the underlying issue is just do your due diligence finding out what it is.

This way, once I scale, my business model will be in place and I will not need to hire a PM company.  

I also own a property management company and we've had good (not perfect) success with long term tenants on a bigger scale.

I'm sure if you're doing a special order on that scale of a project.

I see the potential for scaling in the US much greater than here in BC, although becoming a foreign investor is a lot more involved. 

It wont be my get rich quick scheme but it will pay a constant dividend that will build $30K in wealth each year scaling to $60k in annual wealth creation in the future.