Your management skills should set you up for great success! 

Maybe I will take this as an indicator that I need to work on my communication skills so that other people will not be made uncomfortable by conversing with me of the subject of real estate investing. 

I live in a county with 20k population and our town is 1500, we have severe shortages of both manpower and skilled labor. 

Depends on location, style of house, finishes, types of contractors, GC or self-managed, time of year, permitting costs, local codes, utility requirements, your negotiating skill and about a dozen other factors. 

Most of these people are around because they are professionals that have a skill that you don't have and can learn.

He would need to have a job change, qualify for unemployment, unforseen circumstance such as additions to family, medical situation etc....

Without going into detail, these medical types will have leads, clients' homes need to be sold, even old landlords may end up there!

Contract administrator/ purchasing/procurement.... etc all help w/ skill set useful to investing.

I have had no problems with controlling my listing.I'm experimenting with Booking.com - they're a PITA and have a high level of control over your listing, AND you have to process the credit cards yourself, but I've already gotten two bookings as a brand new listing (in a very slow season), so I'm going to give them a shot for a couple of months - but a lot of people decide they're more trouble than they're worth.As for being able to break even, that's really going to come down to your particular market, expenses, and skill as a manager.  

Other markets to consider include Greenbelt, Suitland and Largo that are attracting major projects (Regional Medical Center, Town Center, USCIS and FBI headquarters) and will bring thousands of high-paying jobs and more middle-income families.