All are solid areas with minimal riff raff.

Those I know I can knock out in a month or two with minimal help.

Is there any advice or actions I might take to minimize my concerns?  

That is certainly one smart way to approach this plan, particularly in the early days where minimizing risk is essential.In my experience, starting out as a Joint Venture is an effective way to team up with another investor.

The property averages about 2 units turnover a year, minimizing the amount of turnover repairs needed.

(Most "investor friendly" agents actually have minimal experience with investing or investors).

They have a duty to their shareholders/members to maximize recovery and minimize loss and not exposing the property (REO) to the open market would be negligent in my experience.Maybe you mean working with the owners through their agent or, maybe you mean working with the bank through their agent after the foreclosure.

Every rental I buy in the city is gut rehabbed, everything in the entire house is new, my typical rehab on a 1200 sq ft house is about 50K, guess what, I have minimal problems, cause things are done right the first time.

Give your guy a shot if you wish, but I know from experience that these FHA/VA Streamline sweatshops with minimal expenses will often have the best pricing (downside as a lender of course is that these sweatshops can ONLY do these specific types of gov't refinances).

I have minimal experience with HELOCs.