Take inventory of your investing objectives, risk tolerances, resources on hand (money, time, energy, stressthreshold, skill sets, knowledge, mentors, etc) and then explore how various invesent models fit.

Sometimes people will state an objection to providing so much info before seeing a unit, but I explain that it is for my safety -- I'm meeting strangers often at vacant apartments, or in the case of an occupied unit, for my tenant's safety since they wouldn't want criminals going through their home.

As of right now my main objective is to get the best training possible; everything else is second to that.

Trying to stay objective and focus on the finding a deal, which it seems is challenging regardless of locale but remain undeterred nonetheless.

While some gave objective and practical opinions, the impression I was given was that they were all trying to take advantage of me and push sales. 

If you're not to sure of the market and what the valuation would be, lean on brokers and local property managers to give you a run down on properties that are similar in age and quantity of units what the avg expenses per door should be and what are properties selling for per door in the area.

They can help you identify the best strategies and entities to use to meet your objectives.

If you're not sure on your budget, the place to get started would be talking to a mortgage broker to see what the max loan amount you would qualify for is (sorry if this is too obvious and elementary, and you may be paying cash because money is no object for all I know, but my assumption would be that you'll take advantage of the low money down financing available for owner-occupied which is a big advantage of house hacking, and that your price point is entry-level so I'll base my advice on that). 

My rental contract as a tenant ended, landlord sent her listing agent to check and he left without any objection.

If not, my first objective would be to get a property here using a low down payment program (3-3.5% down).