@Joshua Feit Inventory can often go "stale" if its not a fresh listing and has come back on the market...

In two years time, you would have rental income to show for multi-family, and that would help you qualify for a conventional mortgage.Could you partner with someone locally to go in on a multi-family together, reducing your expenses together and building equity.Could you find a smaller property locally to buy and live in, start building your equity and net worth while saving cash for the next place? 

So far, we've done a conventional mortgage to purchase and then financed the rehab with mostly personal money and credit cards. 

As long as you can hit your desired numbers (cap rate, ROI, NOI ect.) then a property manager always makes sense in the set it and forget it investment mindset.I think if you go conventional financing on anything 4+ units, that is a solid deal, you should be fine.

With that said I was wondering if conventional or hard money would be the best way to go.

That is the accepted and conventional wisdom that we have been taught; i.e. to be debt free.  

Bought a house with VA loan in hometown (Ellwood City), market in the area continued to decline due to areas nearby stealing the life out of it IMO (Chippewa Township for example).Due to various factors, made decision to pay down heavily the last year, got out from underwater, and recently sold it on 4/22 and walked away with a small amount of proceeds.I know that with an FHA loan, if you eventually convert it to a conventional loan, you can reapply for another FHA loan.  

@Maria D.The benefit of self-directing your IRA and being able to invest in real estate is changing how you can invest the IRA, hopefully so that you can get better results for the IRA than if you invested it in more conventional options.  

Looking for advice on "long distance" investments, as the "local" market around here is inclusive of about a 300 mile radius in order to find inventory and deals...Any thoughts or guidance?

3% down not fha/conventional has been around for a few months now.