We're about to launch our first direct mailer campaign to a short list of about 50 MF properties in a specific neighborhood, and plan to manually track our progress.

I'm thinking $800 might be a good guaranteed number, but could potentially get up to $900 for newly renovated.

You can always refi down the line when when you get some more equity, that gives you the advantage to purchase something else with that newly discovered cash! 

I want to protect my assets in case of any unforeseen adversity with right structure and proper insurance etc.2) Will I be able to put my current investment property in the newly created LLC?

I'd really prefer the HELOC option because access to that equity will allow me to launch my REI career in earnest.

HELOC option is preferred.. access to that equity will allow me to launch my REI career in earnest. 203K limited loan??

What is the 1st (2nd, 3rd & 4th, etc) thing I need to do once I close on a newly acquired property?

My concern is N Korea potentially launching a real attack on USA, which resulted a "World War III".

You might want to get on a real estate agents list of newly listed properties, and you can run numbers on them for practice.  

THIS is what I want to do but am having "failure to launch" issues.