This is my first time attempting to do a commercial loan.

As an agent you have a fiduciary responsibility to try and get the best price for your client so it needs to be abundantly, in no uncertain terms, clear that you are not offering to represent them, that you are attempting to buy the property as an investment and make a profit on that.

You're not selling candy bars, you are attempting to transact in real estate. 

Would attempting this be too much for a first time investor?

Some markets the MF can be hard to get into but don't let that discourage your house hacking attempts. 

I was advised to potentially seek a signature/personal loan and pay for the home outright, however, would I not run into the same problem when attempting to refinance into a conventional after rehab?

As noted, hard money is expensive money, so I attempt to draw as little as I can.

Hence a lot of agents not using or accepting escalation clauses anymore and just going with "highest and best" to attempt to streamline the process (escalations were popular in my market a few years ago but it's common now for listing agents to discourage them and simply ask for highest and best).

I have never attempted anything like this.

Assuming I want to attempt it, does it take a long time to take ownership or is it a fairly easy process?