So I am reaching out to my BP family to help guide me.

You have a great resource here with the forums as well.  

I would also highly recommend doing some more multifamily specific research - some good resources are @Michael Blank and Joe Fairless' websites:http://www.themichaelblank.com/ (more of a focus on raising money, which it doesn't sound like you're trying to do?)

Does anyone have good resources for how I can discern which realtors are quality and which are not?

I wouldn't do anything without asking them first because of your well-guided fear of disqualification.

There are some good resources available online.

Welcome to the BP community @Daniel Langlais The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to REI would be a good place to start here https://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing

Having an RE license would be an expensive waste of resources for me but if you have a different strategy, it can be incredibly useful.

Utilize your resources; walk your landlords to their car following a showing or hand deliver a lease to the applicant to better understand the condition they leave their personal property in. 7.

Are there resources I can look up to see if i can wait and enact new leases that include tenant paying utilties and what legal issues I may encounter there?