Sharpen your sales skils / people skills.

You can form a team just from the people on this forum.

I’m not over estimating the ARV I know my market like the back of my hand.

I totally value and want a property manager to take the day-to-day management off my hands, but on issues with tenant damage and I would like to be kept up to date on matters, as well as have copies of all notices provided to the tenants for my own record keeping.

have you narrowed down to a handful of markets? 

I have done a handful of small projects near USC in the Shandon & Rosewood areas here.

As @Charles Carillo said, you can make the most of that time, but most people just waste the 4-5 years and then end up doing something unrelated to their degree field anyway.Maybe look into a Trade School, like an electrical one....nice clean work that pays really well.

I couldn't imagine managing a property from out of state unless you had an extremely strong team of people in your market to help with showings, inspections, repairs, etc.

Most people don't keep good books anyway.

If she paid other people, you basically hired her as a GC.