But from a moral & ethical perspective, you may want to decide at some point to just eat it and accept write it off as cost of doing business.

Is anyone else aware of reasonable alternatives?

Anything I need to be aware of or make sure they do for my protection?

Rewey: Your Comment: "the ultimate solution is to pay it off if it gets called due."

Your second point of most of the price appreciation is gone, I think is just off base. 

Many of which are savvy BP type clients who are doing updates/raising rents and then the buildings do cashflow positive even with lower down payments which produce amazing returns (at 3.5-5% down you get close to a 50%+ return a year just off mortgage paydown). 

There are a lot of ways to crash and burn, so increasing the odds of succeeding long term should be your highest priority. you can always sell your local assets once you're comfortable managing rentals and ready for a market that better-suits your criteria. btw, kudos for being self-aware of your limitations.

What legal requirements should I be aware of?

They were agreeable...nothing lost on either side as long as both sides are aware and informed.

Not to mention, they weren’t aware of my entity information and other organizational details I’d previously sent (ie state formation, scope of work, etc.); easy stuff.