I am looking to create content online to document my journey, educate others, and market.

Join local meetups or online groups (here on BiggerPockets, Meetup.com, other other local REIA are the good ones).

Wall removal is better for sale usually for open concept, and sometimes for rentals, but if you want more occupancy (potential rent by room) removing walls restricts that.

Do you have any tips how you obtained the phone numbers online from the MF property list you got from Listsource?

Gox online filing system will be able to check the results by logging into the system.

I am hoping to find a single family home that I can "BRSTRHHRR" (buy, reno, Short term rent|House Hack, refinance, repeat) by creating a separate living space in a single family home that can be STRed (this is due to local restrictions in my town that prevent STR in multifamily properties). 

You can also check their reviews online at Google, Facebook, or Yelp.

I understand equity and cash-flow are related, but what I mean is that I don't need the cash flow right now as much as I'd like to build a strong portfolio that can cash flow even more later on.I've owned a single-family rental for 4 years, but on mulitple fronts I felt like I've done a poor job self-managing it, so this Fall I picked up the Turners' book on managing rentals and that's what led me here to Bigger Pockets online.

Keep doing what you're doing with networking, and just keep showing up — in person or online.

I'd look at crime rates and I'd also look at multifamily supply projections to see how many units are expected to come online in the next few years.