Moreover, I’ll need to add appropriate language to this effect in the new lease to soon be signed.

What is the most cost effective way to use my equity as a down payment for my upcoming home purchase?

Even if you plan on self managing it is wise to include PM in your calculations.  

We owned an OOS property (Gulf Shores, Alabama) that got hit by 2 hurricanes in a short duration of time so it does happen.The primary reasons that I am a big proponent of investing local are 1) the learning opportunity that comes with self managing a property. 

Jeff,If you have Checkbook IRA, that means that you have a custodial self-directed IRA which made investment into single member LLC of which you are the manager and your IRA is the member. 

To be honest, it gets hectic no matter how hard you try to systematize things, but we do our best to manage things that come up and figure out a way to handle the situation in a more time effective manner the next time it comes up.Some of the infrastructure pieces we have in place that help us a lot are as follows:Background check software.

At the very least you need to include capex, vacancy, regular maintenance, payments, taxes, insurance, and management costs (its smart to include these even if you self manage since you might want to turn it over to a manger at some point).  

Sorry for the obvious ignorance, but I'm interested in note investing and have only done a little self-education.

I’m seeking advice on how to effectively create an offerand structure the deal.

Know the terms, understand how to analyze a deal effectively.