Avoiding accessive PM fees (personally I recommend most people self-manage)These will eat away at your ROI.

Was it through networking, direct-to-seller marketing, or just keeping an eye on the market?

It sounds like you've gotten some solid direction above, but a few flags stood out to me in the above discussions and I wanted to point them out to help make your decision.- You mentioned this sale is tax free 121 exclusion, which is great, and seems like a solid start to your goal.- The townhouse you're moving into is currently a rental, but you plan to live there two years for the 121 exclusion.

I am currently self employed as a GC with my own company: Carolina Premier Homes.

The loan is with you, not with your tenant, so none of that means anything to them - in fact because you live in one unit and it's under 4, if you were self-managing you don't even have to abide by fair housing laws (at least on the federal level). 

If the people running it are self serving, that will show too.Based the on the leadership or lack thereof, REIAs may be sales oriented, education oriented, a nest for sharks, or someones personal ego outlet.

Quote from @Shawn Questa: A few times I've reached out to Cash Buyers and they would tell me that they are a part of an Investment Group and that they are ready to quickly Close Deals would be happy to work with me.Later I would come to find out that they are actually a Group of Wholesalers, like me.I guess I would prefer to Work directly with the Investor, Cash Buyer or Flipper. 

I moved all of her old retirement money into a self directed IRA/Solo 401K and started putting her money to work through real estate lends.

No management costs as it would be self managed, and estimated property taxes by the average of the past few years.

But, if I were in that situation I would probably not be buying any directly owned properties at all (and would instead be investing in a diversified fund).