My Question: Is the depreciation so much more substantial for a free standing single family home over a townhome that all that extra worry about sprinkler systems and exterior maintenance is worth it? 

Plan on extra time.

This leaves extra cash per month to save for the next investment while I fix up the property on the evenings/weekends.

Are there ways you or your wife can earn extra money or you can cut expenses to save faster?

During that time i’m sure my tenant was extra loud because nobody was below him, he likes to have people over and play music...I told him a couple times about keeping the noise down..a couple nights it’s been 2am and i hear music thumping!

It may sound nice to pay a 5% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no add-on fees.

I would not put in a lot of extra work.

The one i had was EXTRA property mgmt and they sucked.

Since you are a newer investor, be extra cautious as you figure this plan out.

At the time my wife had extra cash laying around and our thought process at the time was "why pay $2400 a month for 2 bedroom unit when we can pay it to a mortgage ourselves?".