I just need to be pointed in the right direction because I get deals in my inbox from people I communicate with all over the country.

Right of the get go that tells me many other people have looked at it and did not offer the asking price. 

I've also held of holding properties in individual LLCs that are owned by one S corporation, which allows for a 60 / 40 split between ordinary income (regular tax) and dividends (capital gains tax rate).With the goal of minimizing taxation and liability protection, what would be the recommendation from more experienced people here?

Flat rate vet's the snot out of people to assure QUALITY.

To me the only thing that is working now is partnering with people who have their own salaried teams.  

CT isn't cheap so if you plan on doing it there you are going to surprised at how poorly you do. maybe in the suburbs I'm not sure but as much as I know people call us from CT and everyone is rich and has lots of money and things are expensive out there. build to rent is a great model. we build 3 story walk up infill and keep it to the residential side. 3 units is the most units before it's commercial and you need engineering, etc. check comparable and things liek that. we came up with this design a year ago and we sold 10 if you want to talk further please DM me happy to connect. there are some great build to rent conferences. we went vertical not horizontal with it to save on build costs and design to fit on any infill lot. this fits on a 3500 square foot lot. most lots in our area are 30x120 or 30x150. in miami where I live now they are 50x100 or so. but any infill lot we can pretty much get this one on. there are some great build to rent conferences coming up too that if you like this topic I'd recommend attending I'm sure you'd learn a lot.  

Multiple people including myself have tried to caution him of the the true costs but he's been repeatedly dismissive and has made it clear we give him motivation and he wants to prove us all wrong (whatever that means). 

I am not going to deep dive here.I usually lose these sorts of deals to people willing to underwrite more aggressively. 

We have a member round table discussion on Fridays at 9 am cst.And we have a calendar of events with events from area landlord groups and member meetups.While we are still on zoom we do try to find ways to still be able to connect and talk with each other so our events are not all just another webinar with people talking at you.Hope to connect.

Because I rent 4 bedrooms house, it's more conducive to large gatherings and parties.Another issue and please tell me if this is normal that when people book for 5 people they usually have at least 10 or 15 additional guests.