However, if you're saying the one is leaving but they still plan on paying their portion of the rent that seems odd to me....

Owning properties through LLCs in their respective states avoids the need to register a foreign LLC, which adds costs and administrative requirements.If you plan to acquire properties across multiple states, you could create a parent LLC in Florida and have individual property-specific LLCs (child LLCs) in each state.

Although you plan on having your mother live in the home to start you'll want to assess the home using the current rental rates and values in the area.

Plan to do more?

Lets get the first 1 or 2 done before we plan for 25. 

However if you plan on buying 3-4units, there is a trigger rule for FHA, it is called the self sufficiency test.

Build a reliable team on the ground, plan occasional visits, and trust your general contractor to handle the day-to-day.

or perhaps a reverse build to suit where the data center operator controls the buildout and the planning etc.I've not been involved in a data center first hand but the central OH market is pretty data and warehouse heavy as far as developments go and to echo the posts here, the power requirements are wild, and the red tape to get that power to the site is often cumbersome. 

I plan for a time when they can be there and check in and make sure there aren't any maintenance items they haven't told me about.

Defense was just something like I just wanted to buy a part of San Francisco for cheap, I wasn't planning to do anything sinister.