If you dont mind I have a couple more questions.

Sponsor in these deals in my mind is far more important than the deal.. there are deals everywhere that's not hard to do.. finding qualified ( VERY EXPERIENCED) sponsors who have been through many economic cycles is hard to do.

The problem you need to keep in mind is management.

I don't think that anyone is ever truly protected from litigation but you sound like your mind is made up. 

Knowing where you want to go begins with knowing where you are, and with that in mind I reached out to a national bank just to see what kind of mortgage I could qualify for and how I would best improve my current situation in case I needed to use conventional financing.My credit score is mid-700s, about $15k in consumer debt (which is coming down).

Also you need to have clear concise goal in mind. IE

The following questions come to mind: Is $215k a good initial offer?

Keep this in mind- I call it the 3 block rule.

One thing that's always in the back of my mind is how I'm going to fund my first deal.

LO and SLO are highly regional  investment schemes.. in some regions it will work in todays market even  in others its a long shot at best.. and what I see is you run into a lot of properties that sellers are just trying to unload on folks and there is marginal to no TRUE equity.. which in my mind is not the way to invest..