What are the proper steps I need to take and who do I need to contact?

Use existing funds, paired with investor funds to do next flip/buy and hold. 2.

Use existing funds, paired with investor funds to do next flip/buy and hold. 2.

Living at the property will allow you to learn the most, your acquisition costs will be more attractive, and by properly maintaining the home you'll in a small way be improving your community. 

As for tenants potentially taking advantage of the rental laws and you wanting to make sure you "get your rent"....I would advise you to strongly consider putting tenants in the property that have a Section 8 Voucher IF you vet them properly.

Just know them going in so that you can properly budget.

I am looking at beginning my Real Estate investing journey in approximately 3 months (can’t start now due to a military PCS coming up) and I want to make sure I have all the proper groundwork laid so I can hit the ground running.

You can then move out and turn the whole property into a proper rental.

But a workaround for this is to get paired up with a portfolio lender.Are these portfolio lenders just small banks that need to do loans in order to make money?

I have 7 STRs that are all 20 minutes from the beach and I have consistent demand paired with lower purchase prices so the numbers work really well.