Ideally I’m hoping to find a mentor that I can really learn from.  

Ideally I could breakeven YoY for the first few years and not float too many costs so I can continue saving and investing.

It would be ideal to find one who understands house hacking, but not critical.Find a REALLY good real estate agent!

Furthermore, if you have sufficient assets already, this could be an ideal way to further diversify your portfolio.

We would like to find someone who will work with us and, ideally, keep the mortgage in-house instead of selling on the secondary market.

I'm at a turn in my career where having 100+ units isn't sexy on top of that I like restoring communities by removing blight and offering employment opportunities and strategically in LMI areas that just have a stupid dogmatic mindset by the greater population that it's not an "ideal" area (i.e.

This implies you cannot terminate leases on less than ideal tenants.  

I was thinking hiring a real estate agent at the tenant’s expense would be an ideal solution, although I don’t have the same access that you have.

I have talked to many CA investors who have lost money OOS specifically with Class C properties - the "cash flow on paper" are ideal scenarios.

While it sounds ideal to bring on another lending partner in addition to seller financing - as you can see you have to pay the piper at some point.