Best advice I could give you is to continue to learn and self-educate.

From real estate sales, wholesaling, flipping, rentals, lending, self-directed IRA and Solo 401k investing, or tax and legal guidance, you will find that many members here are very knowledgeable in their respective fields.

Being local to the property and self managing is a great thing.

I currently self manage my rentals but do not believe I will be able to self manage apartments and all the complexities that come with it.

Also since I will be an OOS investor, what would you suggest with regards to property management, work with a local company, self manage with a reliable local handyman etc??

My partner is technically my partner's pension plan (49%) and I, personally, own the other 51%.I've decided that I want to 1031 my part into commercial property, most likely self storage.

As you have noticed, there are some differences in the policies and procedures between some of the self directed IRA custodians.

I self managed our first fourplex but these two newer ones are under professional property management. 

@Mike SimonAre you financing this or paying cash and self funding renovations?

Vrbo and Airbnb give you the tools to successfully self manage your property.