First, you must meet the eligibility requirements to set up a Solo 401k: (i) you are self-employed; and (ii) you do not have any full-time w-2 employees (i.e. working 1000 hours or more per year) working for your self-employed business or otherwise working for you.

State Farm is far and away the biggest employee in that area, and I imagine they're going to continue their footprint in that market, or at least you need to factor that into your long-term calculations. 

If you hire someone as your employee and pay them a salary, then they may not have to be licensed.

Check to see if they can hire you as an actual employee, I know Florida has similar requirements to be a property manager, however if you are an employee of the owner than that isn’t a requirement.  

But you also are still harnessing the power of leverage in the third property. 

To hire any legitimate contractor that has employees, insurance's, etc a basement bathroom alone will typically be $10-25k depending on a huge amount of factors such as when the home was built, framing, if plumbing is roughed in to code, required code updates, and of course finishes. 

Have you considered being treated as a contractor or employee? 

I am also planning on taking a no-financing financing option, which I know will make it more difficult, but I am optimistic.I am an IT manager for a manufacturing company for the past nine years; I have been in IT for the past 2x years.After letting go of a few valued employees as a result of no fault of theirs, my switch flipped.

Investing away from your primary location should warrant a weekend trip at least to those locations to meet with as many people as you can (realtors / brokers / government employees / restaurants / coffee shops / and More).

With employees you treat them with respect but you don't work for them.