Your post sounds a little close to small scale syndication and you would definitely want to talk to an attorney before attempting to do that.

The smallest amount I have gone to court for was about $100 plus my expenses.Other landlords would bribe or pay extortion money to a tenant rather than take up a fight to evict and attempt to collect regardless of the amount. 

What DF did to investors is put us into a box of "preditor lenders" that DTI and 1003 and ATR ability to repay is the regs attempt to force us to prove this loan is NOT preditory, is affordable and a good value.A lesser talked about need is to show that selling price is "market value" and not a picked out of thin air price the investor picked to their advantage.  

Real estate has a very low threshold to enter and you'll meet all kinds of people attempting to deal in real estate as others might try to sell shoes at a Carnival Shoe Store.    

The landlord accepted partial rent for a year and is going to have to explain to a judge or court why he allowed you to stay and made no attempt to evict.

Now over the past 60 years since WWII there have been a lot of progressive policies and changes and attempts at addressing it. 

I would do my best to find a local bank that will not attempt to sell off the mortgage to Fannie or Freddie.  

In periods of high volatility, attempt to sit on your hands and pray your manager doesn't ask you to relocate!

I'm assuming I should have some buyers in mind before even attempting to sign a contract with a seller; am I accurate?

There are legal issues in Calif when attempting this approach.