Thanks for the suggestion.We are planning to self-manage our next property, so my preference is to live nearby.

Since my main profession is office management for a residential remodeling company, would flipping to build up more capital be a better place to start?

It’s a great way to build your portfolio.

I’m very skilled at construction job costing, inspections, design, and management.

When you apply for a home loan we only look at the monthly payment and on student loans we only hit you with .50% of the payment or in some cases if it is deferred for 12 months we can ignore it all together depending on the program you choose, for example; FHA, Fannie Mae, Portfolio etc.Another trick is if the installment loan on a car/vehicle only has (10) months of payments remaining or less we can "Omit" it all together.

I'm currently aggressively vetting property managers.

I actually work for a global real estate asset management and investment firm (mostly commercial, logistics, multi family etc) and have always loved this asset class.

If this is a local bank that is going to portfolio this loan, they will most likely assume some min line usage/payment and use that in DTI.

IE the loan we got for our coast property requires we use it a minimum number of days per year and cannot lease it out either directly or through a property manager for STR use, for a period of time.   

Keep moving forward to expand your real estate portfolio by being aggressive and goal-oriented.