I will have to practice my scripts and questions to ask.

What are the best practices in this situation, especially considering any local laws and regulations that might apply?

You can join local real estate investment clubs or online forums to expand your network.Education: Continuously educate yourself on real estate investing strategies, market trends, and property management best practices.

But in practice almost 100% not possible.

If you do find someone that makes it a practice to front the licensing $, then they will likely keep a big portion of your commissions and they will have you sign an agreement tying you in for a while.

No offers in this market is typically based either on price or practicality.

I also plan to start looking at properties after I finish some reading just to practice analyzing deals.

Go for small counties that do not have as much competition as the large ones. thats were I would start and thats where my Dad would buy 100 plus props a year at tax sale.Most of the online bids can be done from the comfort of your home and you are able to preset your max bid and the system can simultaneously bid for you on all properties across all counties at once, so that may only apply to in person auction.

There are other ways to pass this test, but the "100 hours and more then anyone else" test is the most practical for you IMO. 

Since i paid cash for new michigan home i can use it to finance the future MI rental home and pay it right back off again in 2-5 yrs if i need to,  Im going to try to not do that.I had come up with this plan all on my own but had no real idea of how to execute it and i had ZERO practical experience.