Also, you are right about wanting to have a deposit from the tenant, so they have some skin in the game to take better care of your property.

If not, factor minimum 15% for management.Also, consider that you will pay taxes on all the income (after expenses).As others mentioned, research the competition in your area to learn the demand/restrictions.Depending on these answers, you may be better off doing this closer to home. 

I have switched to needtoskip and am getting better results

I normally advise people to self manage for the first part of their journey if they can so that they can get a knowledge base to become better investors.At some point if you get to enough units self management is tough and its too costly to hire an employee so the numbers make sense hiring a property manager.To be blunt, you are going down a risky path for an investor.  

I later move it over to eXp Realty, and things went better there.

We have many of our clients start with House Hacking including ourselves and no better way to learn about rehabbing a property on how to add value to get the max rents out of your property.

And true operators versus marketers posing as operators often have better track records and, because the ones I know are more likely to only find a few deals per year, they have far more demand than supply for their deals.Either way, I appreciate your thoughts and insights.

I do wonder if I would be better off just paying the taxes and not messing with the 1031 and having a new primary home so I could sell or rent the other.

Keep in mind the more work they are going to be doing and the better the job, the more you will have to pay them.

Start with calling the planning dept at the city to define the zoning and allowed density 2.