The RE market is efficient.

A well established full house management will do at least the following: guest communication, house inspections to check cleaning and that nothing is missing, claim support IF there are issues, guest screening and “party prevention”, restocking of supplies, coordination for maintenance, safety and security of the house, work with you on city regulations, dynamic pricing, manage the listing online, cleaning management, monthly reports there is a lot ... but there are great STR management companies out there providing a ton of value.

That strategy may have the city inspectors direct you differently, you can also tap into their experience and expertise on how to get it done quickly & efficiently, since that is a direct result and common goal all of you would be working toward.Going at it from an ADU perspective, is also a way to help bring affordable housing to the area.

End communication, close the deal before the expiration of the contract.

A final note on REITs, they qualify for Qualified Business Income deductions when held in a taxable account, which makes them a little more tax-efficient to be held outside of IRAs. 

Given, I'll not have a US mailing address, how will the important communications be addressed?

You make it sound so easy and efficient the way that you wrote it. 

We've also send out a text message to 2 of the tenants (previous communications were made via SMS) to remind them and to let us know when we can get the remaining balance of rent.

If you want to, you can send me a private message to communicate further.

My initial thought was to keep the utilities in my name and connected to my credit card, and having them pay me directly for the utilities, but maybe there's a more efficient way to go about this?