Some locations may have "pockets" of high density student housing that proves to be more popular than a house across from one section of campus.

A simpler alternative would be a t bill or short term Treasury fund, such as SNSXX if you want the same liquidity as a high-yield savings account.

Is an alternative arrangement where the builder builds at a discounted rate, and then the investor handles selling the property + gets all profit?

It doesn’t always pan out as a viable option but I always recommend considering this so you know your alternatives.

Alternatively, if there is a real estate agent/ Agency that anyone recommends, please let me know.  

Where/what platform do my fellow investors like to acquire alternate assets?

(don't think we have time or knowledge to pursue that) . alternatively the lender has asked us to work with a commercial lender.. we have not done any commercial loans so far, but basic research provides core diff is the 30 yrs vs shorter duration 10-15yrs in commercial + ARM (floating). 

I went all in on this strategy, buying and living in what I thought was the best of my D class properties, following the popular "house hacking" strategy often talked about on BP and other places (terrible idea). 

NOTE: The 'State' field for name badge does not want to accept Arizona, I had to use an alternate state.

I'm not in that area so I don't any particular Facebook groups but you should be able to find the most popular just by looking around on FB.