I plan to self-manage it, should be able to easily demonstrate 100 hours and no one works more than me on it, and keep the stays under 7 days.

Good management and fresh clean apartments bring top of the market rent to a re-emerging work force ready to serve the warehouse industry in a once great industrial railroad city. 

We have a tenant in process- my property manager is telling me that he uses Turbo Tax and the lease he generates only requires his signature and the tenants.

Realtors, property managers, contractors, and legal advisors are invaluable.6.

that we’ve learned in our 24 years, managing almost 700 doors across the Metro Detroit area, including almost 100 S8 leases.

The other way is using the short term rental loophole but you have to be the person spending the most time in managing the asset which may not be worth it for you. 

I have a small 3 unit that I manage myself.

It can absolutely be done in California, and although California makes it very difficult to manage properties due to tenant-friendly laws, if you know what you're doing or have a great property manager, California is an excellent place to invest due to high appreciation.

They are entities, not individuals and their asset managers handle thousands or hundreds of these at a time.

One way to look at is that your paying a property management fee of 8-10% to do absolutely nothing but just hope that this is a long term hold because you might have to pay these again to buy something else....correct me if I am wrong.