But if you invest wisely your cash flow should help cover much of that mortgage payment ... and quality cash flow (on C class/ workforce apartments) doesn't evaporate during a melt down.

I want to comment you need to blame yourself-  who buys something in who knows where without flushing a toilet or seeing the quality of people walking the streets.Yes you can tell the quality of people just by looking at them.   

As a quality-control element, it's better to have my housekeeper handle it.  

OP is a out of state landlord, it is very common for out of state landlord to charge tenant market or slightly below market (I do charge below market for quality tenants).

Quality of life is big though so make sure you have time for family.

Tenant quality and reliability would be my main issue.

If you're going to pm yourself you just need to spend a lot of time finding as many quality contractors as you can and getting bids from them.

Does anyone have any insight into the quality/reputation of this builder or this development in particular?

Agree with everyone else, blinds are important to attracting quality tenants.

That being said with my construction background, the availability of SFH that need to be rehabilitated and the need for quality rentals here, I choose to rent to the locals.