You'll get a greater ROI if you are hands on but it will also take up more of your time: visits to your investment area, finding reliable "boots on the ground", managing the process from afar...Personally I'd be looking at the full turn-key experience where you pay a bit more for the property but it is ready to go and you can enjoy getting the return on your investment.

I have experience ranging from boots on the ground doing the work to being the draftsperson drawing the plans, and that coupled with a great contact list of experienced and qualified contractors will really help me on my journey. 

Find  property with  very low rental rates compared to the market or that you can re-configure/change the use on.Even land is probably a good thing to look at in your market.

Some do but they typically offer lower LTV's when compared with HELOC's on primary residences. 

I wouldn't worry too much about the agent being the seller, but potentially try to do your own market analysis to make sure the selling price is comparable to others in the area.

I'm not completely familiar with any of those areas but if you do decide that is the area for you, I would make sure a get some solid, reliable contacts with boots on the ground there, and that's not easy to do

So how it works in your county might be way different compared to other areas. 

Fresno was about comparable to Highland/San Bernardino and Hemet, both closer to me. 

As part of your side of the story, try to show national data where rentals have increased over the past 20 years compared to ownership.

Rather than doing a Recast, if I invest the $50K into another SFH (at a price point that’s right for me) I’ll end up with $0-100 net monthly cashflow compared to my 3 other SFHs that are producing $2200/month net monthly cash flow (cumulatively).Based on the incredible growth going on in the Boise/Meridian Treasure Valley area (with an additional 400,000 new residents expected to move into the valley in the next 30 years) is it worth it to have a rental in my portfolio that is funding its expense but not netting anything to me?