Its better to have your unit vacant for an extra month or so than to deal with a problematic tenant who will give you headaches for 6+ months.- Consider 2-4 family properties.

Do you have a deal you are working on ?

Hey, you could look into markets that still have plenty of deals with cash-flow. 

What are your thoughts on this deal, given the information above?

It's not super complicated, but you can pull out cash to rehab the deal and then put it on the market with no prepayment penalty. 

I am about to close on a deal to do midterm rental.

(My commercial deals are typically 5-30 unit buildings, not multiple hundred unit complexes)Some LOI terms to includePrice, transfer taxes, concessions, contingencies, study period, closing date.

Did you target a location and find a contracting company first to be prepared before hunting for deals?

BP has various tools to help you analyze your deals (rentals, flips, wholesale, etc). : https://www.biggerpockets.com/investment-calculators7.

What's the breakdown between direct-to-seller, through a broker, or other source?