No attempts by any relatives to redeem at all. 

First, do no harm.

No.  

C-Corps usually aren't a preferred structure for real estate.I know that with a self directed IRA all of the income has to come back to the IRA - read another way - you can't take the profits from your investments and access them today (so no passive income that you can utilize in the near term).  

My biggest piece of advice would be to take it slow and learn to evaluate different options and strategies and hear different opinions (you don't have to take them all and use them, see what works for you... there are a lot of them on these forums LOL) as soon as you can.

An investor should have every property held in the right entity and not in their personal name, no matter if it's a LTR or STR.

No more promise of buyers agent commissions posted on the MLS.

We stay in them several times a year.I'd say my biggest concern is assessments. 

The current owners do not have a mortgage, and would sell it to me direct.Since the don't need the cash, I'm going to offer $50k down at a 3% interest at a 30yr rate, but buy them out and remortgage it with the bank at year 5.No money needs to go into it, i have a $100/mon HOA, ~$800/mon escrow.

Just go to the Vegas auctions you will see it every day.. there is always some investor that will pay more than you will .. most of those folks are just looking for rentals.. some are not clued into values as you suspect but many just have other criteria that is not your criteria.. and forgeta bout it when someone wants to live in the house no one will beat them ..