@Kristi TietzI'd be very careful using this tactic to get started, especially if you plan to use borrowed money to lend out such as HELOC or credit cards.

Educate yourself on the local market, network with other investors and agents, and always have a solid plan in place before making any investments.

And if I should get them out, what’s the exit plan?

This sounds like a great opportunity to do some tax planning with a CPA to determine what type of entity structuring meets your goals. 

Your property management company will at least have the expenses of creating the company (I would strongly recommend creating an entity), bookkeeping, tax preparation and the 401k plan setup and management fees.

We plan on splitting our investments 50/50 and we both have very similar long term goals.

I just purchased my first investment property in Fletcher, NC (about 20 min outside Asheville) which I plan to use as a short term rental.

TSMC has contributed to this, but population growth and travel have also been a big factor in the appreciation of real estate.

You'll need to plan to pay it off within ~10 years, too.

I suppose you could work out a plan with the tenants to do a more gradual increase of the rent rather than doing it all at once to be more income-friendly and to allow them to attempt to budget for the increase but you may also risk losing them anyway.