I am also new to real estate investing but will say that this forum and BP in general is a wealth of knowledge. 

Plus he is a wealth of knowledge.

I learned it all.6 months later these guys were working for me on my flips.I find the knowledge in construction to be both highly beneficial but can also be a vice.

Before your read any further, I would not consider myself an expert, but I do think based upon your post you and I are probably in the same boat.I assume if your budget is 400k, you probably have 80k-100k liquid cash for deal 1?

To my knowledge you’ll never get this off the ground.

And the last remote purchase I did was somewhere I went to school (Chicago), so at least I had some knowledge of the area. 

I'm also interested in general knowledge of the multifamily development process(which loan vehicles may be best, which pitfalls to avoid, etc.).

You will also need to figure away to get leads so you will need to become a somewhat expert in marketing.

They will have the local knowledge to help you know where to start.

As an out of state investor you can't expect an out of state company to provide the knowledge of actual boots on the ground in that market.