It was a long ardous process.Here's part 1 of a 3-part series:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/55/topics/690349-from-bankruptcy-to-1-000-units-part-1-thru-the-dark-tunnelHowever, when I transitioned to hotels, I found out the better route to scale up is to joint venture with the right partner.So, for you...you have 2 choices:1) You can do everything yourself - if this is the route you choose, start with a 4-family where 1 unit needs work and the three units are occupied but their leases are about to expire (maybe in 3-6 months). 

Do they have ANY bankruptcy or evictions in their past (easy to pass on them if the do in my opinion).

This would deal with issues of bankruptcy/dissolution would the substance of the operating agreement call to access those numbers returning capital back to the partners if applicable.  

My thinking was my net worth was 0 anyway, and you can’t go lower than 0 since you could always declare bankruptcy.  

This is only 1 factor but in my experience, poor credit due to bankruptcy actually helps me because now that the potential tenants debts are gone they can afford to rent.

It should not have any bearing on bankruptcy of Guardian fund. 

I still am interested in building houses for myself to live in.My mother made so much money in the 80s and 90s with rental properties only for a problem with a general contractor to cause her to go into bankruptcy and loose everything.

Your RoR is your chance at bankruptcy or any figure you want to put at the bottom (You can put in a 0% chance of going below $100k Net Worth etc).When I played high stakes poker, there was a well known story of Poker "Bob", aka Haralabos Voulgaris who was finally hired to the be the analytics director for the Dallas Mavericks. 

last I looked whole life policies were an exempt asset under bankruptcy law as it was considered a form of a retirement.

Convictions, evictions, bankruptcies and negative credit must be acceptably explained in writing.