I personally like NC, but I am biased, I live here. 

But if not, can she just keep it in her name and i just manage it?

You want to keep your maintenance low by doing all repairs as early as possible.

Either a personal residential home or an investment property? 

The rates are always going to be different between anything that is for personal use and anything that is considered purely investment.

Have a person who can guide you through the couple of deals you do at first to make sure you can really know how to do a deal from start to finish (not the remodeling, but systems)3.

Hi Alya, I've personally done a lot of STR and MTR for my clients so I have a lot of experience with this.

I will keep in mind

Can a person own two homes with two VA loans and refinance one of the homes  into a conventional loan freeing up some of the entitlement which would enable you to buy a 3rd home under the VA loan?

Usually the Veteran is using the "Change of Life" circumstance which means they are moving out of state, closer to work, school, or moving into a bigger home for increased family, out of a multifamily into a SFR, it also applies to retirees or disabilty if moving out of a larger home and into a smaller one due to up keep or mibility.Most VA loans have an assumption clause as well.