Looking for some input...I'm working on educating myself more when it comes to various tax benefits and trying to decide what would be the best route for me moving forward.

The property managers fees should be philosophically aligned with your goals as the property owners. 

So an investor buys the property, you pay them a down payment for the lease option then pay rent for a year and after a year you have option to buy it.What makes this challenging is the lease option payment would probably need to be around 20% of the purchase price but it sounds likeyou do not have it. maybe moving is just not in the cards.

Im not a fan of seller financing unless that property is free and clear and the seller is offering reasonable terms NOT on money they have borrowed. just too many people get into this type of thing without understanding the whole picture, like title being moved into the buyer's name, due on sale clauses... etc. etc. also, just because its a very commonly overlooked guideline which makes financing on 3's and 4's a little challenging: FHA requires the property to self-sustain its own PITIMI by the rents.

The goal here would be to increase rental income.

That's the goal!

However, within three days of moving in, one family member reported experiencing asthma issues and mentioned an unidentified smell.

If you're lucky enough to get a free and clear property where the seller is willing to finance, this reduces much of the risk associated with seller-finance.I would make sure the title is then moved over to your name, especially since there is not a risk of a due-on-sale clause being triggered.

Gaining clients from your interactions should be a secondary goal. 

Purchase price: $350,000 Cash invested: $11,500 With the proceeds of the sale of our first fixer upper we purchased this duplex which we moved into one unit and same month purchased another duplex in another town to BRRRR.