It's time for action, and before I take the leap I wanted to tap into the vast experience of this amazing community.

The vast majority of the populace are clueless and incredibly scared about going at a transaction without an agent. 

Not only is this not correct but I certainly also don't believe that $1200 per year is sufficient.- With ~18K for expenses and ~63K of income, that works out to ~29%; extremely unlikely (to the point that I would buy a lottery ticket first - at least I would know what I am going to loose ;).

When I meet a new client, the vast majority of them aren't quite sure what they need or are looking for. 

Honestly I don't see a huge issue with starting your investing career in a different market if you are able to develop sufficient systems.

After you have sufficient equity, you should be able to take out a HELOC on the property to use for your next down payment. 

Paul vastly differ in quality and price.

Is there a form I can get him to sign or just a 3 day notice to vacate is sufficient?

Go compare cost of living in multiple areas and you'll see it's vastly different.

It is apparent that he didn’t do his due diligence to well handle the purchase process and didn’t disclose the sufficient information to us before our purchase.