DO NOT TREAT THIS AS A HOBBY. 

IMO I thing as long as you treat it as a business you will be fine. 

I think a great thing to do is to partner with your friend ( make sure to treat it like a business and have proper documentation/ written agreements) and see how it goes for the first year.

From all my court appearances, I noticed that foreign landlords were treated much more leniently, especially if they pretended they could not speak english.

I know there are some national mortgage lenders that do hard money loans, but they treat it more like a "production line."

As long as you always add value and treat people with respect.

I've heard if they're under 5 units they treat them as single family. 

Sure, you can and should ask them questions regarding specific services they offer, but don't treat this like you're already a highly successful entrepreneur and they should be rushing to you with resume's and begging for a chance to work in your business. 

I look at how they treated unemployment in my state.

If you dress for them the same way you dress for anyone else (which could be suit, business casual, or jeans and boots, depending on where you work and your typical client demographic), you're sending them a message that you're treating their business as seriously as you're treating the business of people who you 'need to impress' because they don't know you yet.