This means spending money on marketing, websites, SEO, SEM, social media marketing, content production, virtual assistants, cold calling services, text messaging services, lists, data research, property research, etc.  

I'm looking for some folks to collaborate with, virtually.

I'm a very strong self-motivated person so the virtual office aspect of the company works well for me.

So the rent that was cheaper when the decision was made to rent a few years later has increased versus the SFR home purchase costs have mostly not risen (certainly have not risen anywhere close to the same amount).In addition the San Diego real estate has appreciated at least 7% every year since 2012 with a high year of ~20%.In the San Diego market purchasing has been a better financial decision in virtually all cases in the last 5 years as long as you did not need to sell shortly after purchase.I realize coastal So Cal is not a typical market. 

As I virtually drive through inside the DMZ area of Detroit I see a lot of larger brick apartment buildings boarded up, and looking rentable as (Affordable housing /Housing Choice Voucher Program/Section 8) if they were re-developed.I'm talking about larger places.

This is why virtually all of us on this forum (that I know of) self-manage and are very happy with our profits.

We have been looking at potential properties in our price range for months now and running numbers, and there virtually none that meet the 2% rule for LTRs, which is why so many people here do STRs.

That is not even touching on building your team virtually. 

I would probably look virtual 

I figured if they all broke in the same month (virtually impossible) I would still be safe.