I'm hoping to find a management company that works with traveling Nurses that require short term rentals.  

Not sure how close you are in terms of proximity to the university but my Dad bought property near a university for over 30 years and eventually a developer came in and bought everyone out and added luxury student housing and shopping with a huge payday for all the owners who had bought many years before.

However, in my opinion in the long term, the extra fees end up costing the owner more and just leads to a more strained relationship over time. 

Over the years I became more and more involved with some of those people and as an adult started taking them to lunch to "pick their brain" (Not my favorite term but you get the point).One of these Gentlemen I have continued to meet with and give him updates on my business.

Spend the money on flight and hotel when you acquire the property to thoroughly inspect the property and put together a detailed improvement plan.

This should put you in a good position to secure favorable financing terms.

We're not sure if moving out of state would be long term or if we would return after a year.

Im looking for recommendation for Mid Term Property managers within the Phoenix area. 

Lots of things to consider in terms of your overall budget, timeline, general liquidity, etc, but in my opinion, you really can't go wrong either way

-Think about what asset class you want to go into as well, whether you are doing a short-term rental, mid-term rental, or long-term rental, you can also use up 75% of the rent income from the separate unit if you do decide to go into multifamily, this could make it easier to qualify for a small multifamily property.