I'm planning to scale my own portfolio to 10 SFHs and eventually sell them as a single rental package.

Personally my goal is not to have any paid off properties (yet, maybe eventually).

This home would be a great padsplit set up and could easily be converted to a 6 bedrooms/4-5 baths with the proper remodel (currently its a 5/2.5).

If you want to scale eventually you will have to syndicate in one way or another. 

I had to eat it eventually after months of protesting lol 

You tap into the $2m for this, and eventually the W2.  

Convert the note to Roth at a discounted rate. i.e. $50k principle valued at $21k for Roth conversion.Here's a thread on BP started by @Dmitriy Fomichenko explaining this strategy in detail.

Now, if you’re buying a large apartment building with 100–1,000 units, current income plays a much bigger role because it takes significant time, money, and effort to convert units to market rent.

They always eventually figure it out and take back their monies.) 

Those losses simply carry forward until you have passive income or eventually sell the properties.The main exception to this is if any of the properties qualify as short-term rentals with an average stay of seven days or less and you materially participate.