Without knowing the specifics of the Providence market, I would suggest researching the locations of other student housing providers (ex: https://the02908club.com/).

Setbacks holdbacks include a crazy complicated parenting situation (husbands ex) who aggressively pursues our money.

That is, banks that are connected enough to have, umm, “fewer regulatory issues” and ex-employees or soon-to-be employees “regulating” them.

Where is vacancy, maintenance/cap ex, asset protection, PM (include it even if self managing as you deserve to be compensated for your efforts), utilities, misc.  

Since my rentals cash flow, there is an excess to cover cap ex, vacancies etc.

Making matters even worse, the properties most are buying (the lower tier properties) are disproportionately impacted by operating costs and cap ex.  

We are all confused about what role a private lender plays, so here is a quick and dirty explanation.Unlike prime lenders (ex. big national and regional banks like Chase) that underwrite both the borrower's ability to repay the loan and the collateral (ex. real estate), private lenders make lending decisions based on the collateral. 

Yes, the more units you go up, generally the less players in the game so there is some advantage in purchase competition as you go up, but also more management scale and cap ex for someone who is new.3.

Same with a house, can you get seller financing on a $500k house and put $50k down, and pay $2k/mo, but then immediately find a buyer (ex. 1-3 months) and sell it for $550k and pocket the $50k?

The property will cash flow $500/mo or more after all expenses and cap ex reserves, as well as the payment on the SBLOC.