Keep learning by reading books and using BiggerPockets calculators to analyze deals.

Hard money lenders, familiar from your experience with flips, remain a viable choice, although they typically come with higher interest rates and shorter repayment terms.

You can read about it here.

It is a lot of properties in Rochester for amazing prices, kinda of scary and exciting at the same time, because i read the deals can be good depending on the streets.

Does anyone have experience using Buildium as their self storage software?

Avoid lenders that make you escrow your monthly payments at closing, that is not uncommon for new investors but far from necessary and there are many lenders that won't do that to you, regardless of your experience.

Everyone is always trying to find where their advantage is, and I think you have yours with your experience, day job and family connections.

Also if you read David Greene's book "Long Distance Real Estate Investing" if you will be of great help and give you the confidence you need.

Or read the presentation here.

It would be negotiated and it happens fairly often based on what I've read on the forums since I've been a member.