All of the other comments are great, I will just add one piece of additional advice, decide what you want your investment to look like five years from now.

There's a lot of moving pieces when trying to move distressed properties and/or sellers.My recommendation would be to partner up with a really experienced wholesaler.  

As long as you stay 100% business-purpose (i.e. no live-in flips or anything sniffing of owner-occupancy), the NMLS/regulations do not apply in most states and you will likely be good on the regulatory piece (as always, there are exceptions and you should always consult with a pro/research)

Around Black Friday, I went to Ashley Furniture (we'll call this store A1) looking for a piece for my primary, which is an hour from my rentals.

Soon she asked me to sign a piece of paper that says she can record meetings we have together and that she can go into my apartment and record things if ncessary.

The 2 year buyout was needed to really make this work and give me piece of mind. 

Consider the following:12 unit in somewhat rural Wisconsin, 6 separate duplexes on one piece of land, priced at $849K.OM Insurance cost: $6200 (seems high)Broker proforma: $30001.25% - 1.5% rule from @Juan Vargas: $10,612 to $12,735$250/unit rule from @Gino Barbaro: $3000The WI apartment deal isn't a traditional apartment building so I tried it on one more building. 

The vacancy piece sounds nerve wrecking. 

I think the piece that struck me is the lack of owner warning or approval to control how much rents are lowered to get a tenant in there.

The biggest missing piece here is your budget?