Our hope is to simply be able to collect the rents as income, which is approximately 5% of the overall value of her investments.  

@Tim Bee, what @Russell Brazil said but also when it comes to restoring the property to its original condition you can require them to escrow the funds to do that restoration work up front because we all know its hard to collect from people as they walk out the door. 

For example, if you use Hospitable, you'll need another solution for background checks, lease signing, and monthly rent collection.

If it's going to tax foreclosure, and you win, you can wait 120 days for the IRS to come after you to collect...they usually don't unless it's a very juicy property. 

Do really have to use a business account to collect rent or can I just set up a new account from any bank and only use it for the business?

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

Also, focus on 2 years of job/income stability.Class D Properties:Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, all cashflow with little, maybe even negative, relative rent & value appreciationVacancy Est: 20%+ should be used to cover nonpayment, evictions & damages.Tenant Pool: majority will have FICO scores under 560 (almost 30% probability of default), little to no good tradelines, lots of collections & chargeoffs, recent evictions.

@Logan M. another stream of income, if you don't want to have clients finance through banks is financing them yourself and collecting the 12-15% on contract sales.Do you offer any mini storage in any of your communities for an additional income stream?

Attending these events are REALLY important (I can find my first mentor, network, collect business cards, etc), but I'm held back by my situation. - What is the optimal way to fund my first deal?

The real question has to do with  if you are prepared to do what's required to learn the foundations of real estate investing, strategies, tactics, financing, title, escrow, marketing, deal structuring, develop acquisition systems, investors, associate networks and management of properties, rent collection, cash flow, taxes, etc.This is all took me a lot longer than one year, but you might be very dedicated.