I am a handy person who would be able to perform much of the home renovation myself.

House hacking will also give you some personal "property management" experience.

You will also gain valuable experience that you can leverage for other opportunities.Speaking from personal experience, I have several STR rentals in California (I co-own STRental Pros in Orange County, Los Angeles County, and Riverside County).

I actually had to get enough units where I could offer tenants multiple housing options when I purchased properties rented at way under market rates and then (an embarassing number of times) personally watch tenants that would "suffer" from a rent increase turn down smaller (but nicer places) or  nicer places in a less prestigious zip code (sometimes only minutes away) before I realized that I was hampering my ability to earn a living in order to subsidize the lifestyle choices made by a some random stranger that happened to live in a property I bought.

Ideally, my buyers are fully employed and financially liquid foreigners - be it from the US, the UK, central and northern Europe - either a single person or a couple with 0-1 kids, looking to live there right now, rent it out as an investment and then sell it, or use it as a future base for retirement.

It's like a person who has serious stomach issues but refuses to go to the doctor because they're afraid they'll be given a terminal diagnosis.

I use Travelers and had insurance on the landlord, dwelling and personal property level (because if the place is furnished by you, you have to have insurance on it) and they didn't cover anything.

I'm going to be that person who asks if you might be willing to also send me the same files? 

what  happens if one partner wants to exit the property in the future and the other person doesnt )    2)  consider  buying and  financing it as a rental property  or using a DSCR  ( debt service coverage) type loan   3)  consider  additonal co borrowers  that are  strong  ( relatives )   4) obtain a new job that has a salary  that can be used  5)  wait to buy unitl you have the  seasoning for the variable income 

Personally, I'd say find a market you want to go after.