My friends that are doing this aren't what I could consider investors in the sense they're not monitoring the market - they have a good tenant that doesn't bother them so keep the rent the same for years until something bad happens like the bathtub overflows. 

He is worth his weight in gold!

In all of my units I include a private workspace that's in a room with a door that closes (important for video calls), a comfy desk chair, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and hdmi cables.

I have not had a problem and they are not requiring Central Monitoring on any of my policies from 1-8 units.

Same for emails, voicemails and texts.It doesn't sound like you were represented by a buyer's agent and this is a perfect example of why a good Realtor is worth his weight in gold. 

I also found a website that scans/monitors other sites for legitimacy, and it flagged theirs as likely a scam; d) I know of a handful of investors in my area who didn't learn through a program like this, but through their own networks and education (through REI networking events, getting their RE license, property management, books, etc); e) I started exploring BP's free and affordable (i.e. books) resources, and it turns out, these have been immensely useful and educational and allow me to move at my own pace. 

I think having the flexibility to choose what weekends my family or friends wants to come into town out weights the consideration of putting a tenant in there full time.I have researched a bunch of things that come into consideration before starting this and I would love thoughts!

You can use this to help offset expenses if something bad happens while you begin the process of taking back your house.There are certainly risks involved, but you seem to imply that this is likely the best deal that you will get so you need to weight the pros/cons and see if it is a good fit for you.The alternative is to ask if instead of doing the deal sub2, if the buyer is willing to buy the home on a wrap. 

They can query from a bunch of forum discussion even as large as Reditt and give weight to multiple answers/opinions with all options being explained clearly.

Passive real estate investing still requires enormous amounts of due diligence and monitoring.