Would definitely recommend trying to get out to live events, whether it's local Meetups focused on the subject and there are a number of conferences around the country.

I haven't figured out how to conduct tenant walk thrus and other logistical challenges that presents itself being distantly managed.  

Do I need to have an extra LLC to conduct REO Transaction?

But your right I was talking to a flipper in LA at a conference and they do 600 to800k houses and were averaging about 15k per flip.. but they did 80 of them.. so while they made over a million for the year thats a ton of work and debt to manage.If your going to be successful flipping you have to be able to do volume as you clearly denote.. one at a time unless your hitting big numbers..

I have conducted a  dry listing to see if I could get interest and was able to 8 applications in 24 hours before I removed the listing at a rate of 700$ per room.

Interest incurred to conduct a business is a deductible business expense. 

Any pointers / advice on how to go about conducting my own research ( such as nationwide indexes, unemployment rates, avg income per capita etc.) would be more than appreciated.Thanks!

I would tell him to read the Model Rules of Professional Conduct as i was walking out his door.  

Are you able to still conduct actual real estate transactions?

Read books, go to conferences and meet-ups and engulf yourself into podcasts.