Buying out of state is fine you will only have an issue if you go with a lender with overlays or requires landlord seasoning.They may question your ability to manage the property if you are out of state in terms of excessive mileage away.

You can get an Excess or Umbrella policy that provides additional coverage. 

3) Do I need to have an actual company or can I do this as a private individual?

I was looking at those two formulas and thinking to myself this seems a bit excessive for rental property investing, thanks @Bjorn Ahlblad! 

Typically, eventually the tenant will move out but not as agreed and not per the timeline agreed, in fact most times, they will actually go from a receptive/agreeable stance in person (such as you experienced in your meet up) to a challenging and accusatory stance later on as you get closer to move out and the worst keep going to downright damage and nightmare issues.

The flooring is actually quite durable. 

My personal background is actually in accounting.

I'll definitely keep you in mind with any questions once I'm actually there.

If you can get 10%, thats really nice for 30yr, but you might want your liquidity back sooner or not take a chance on your borrower for that long.The reason to go "creative" is if you have an actual issue.  

If there was a good faith effort by the county to actually enforce their end of the deal, for the "safety of guests", I would agree.