You leran it by going out and looking at real properties.

Real estate is a long game.

Newbie to real-state and looking to learn ahead of first rental we are planning to find/acquire in ~12-18mo. 

Hi @Ellen Feiss I agree with @Ty Coutts that you should start with informal, friendly, face-to-face conversations with the tenants to establish rapport, especially as you have some lead time here before next April.People don't like surprises or having to scramble, so if you are able to let them know your plans in advance, if they are reasonable people they should appreciate the extra lead time.This is especially true if their rents are currently very under market - they will have sticker shock when they look at what other units are renting for, and have to spend more time finding a new unit (if you'll be asking them to leave).If you have to move into one of the units yourself, I'm surprised you (or your lender) didn't make it a condition of the purchase and make the seller have the unit vacant for you.Sooner or later in rental real estate, you will have to establish a relationship with an eviction attorney.

Start going to real estate meetups in your area.

Hire an experienced real estate broker to help you price and sell the property. 

Considering how crazy the real estate market is here in Florida, I've been evaluating alternate means of sourcing potential investment properties, one of those being tax deed sales.

Exploring real estate  opportunities there. 

Does other non-real estate related business income affect this?

I consider myself well-versed in real estate knowledge and business jargon, but syndications really have their own set of lingo - starting with the word "syndication" itself!