My ideal scenario would be to own a small investment company with a partner that holds a few mid-sized rental properties for baseline income, and supplements this with a few high-profit flips every year to help grow the rental portfolio and pay for lifestyle upgrades, vacations, etc.My formal education is an Electrical Design engineer, and for the past 10 years I've worked for large companies designing complex electronic (computer) circuits for things like Medical Devices, LED lighting, etc.

-We don't have any other debts, no credit card, no auto, nothing, just properties and we are maxed out.  

Ideally you should ask what you want long term...If you think the tenant can meet your needs as a landlord while you meet your responsibilities to them then solve today's problem and set clear expectations along with regular follow ups going forward..

Since i'm just starting out i'd ideally like to start with a small investment (just to get my feet wet) and then with a little experience under my belt aim for larger projects. 

(his degree is Aerospace Engineering) Since he'll need to go the FHA route for his loan to get a low down payment, we're looking for some remote leads on investor friendly lenders and local real estate agents that can help us locate an ideal property for him.  

Whenever I deal with this, so long as the color works either way, I go with whatever the odd man out is.

To keep the space profitable we think designating a space to storage units or opening a restaurant/bar in one of the buildings may be ideal for monthly income.At this time we are contacting local organizations to see if they would be interested in having their events at this facility.

I would ideally like to buy the property, fix up the house then convert the he double garage into either a studio or even a 2 bed and then rent out the house.

That would be on their auto insurance, possibly renters insurance. 

Ideally, you will learn the markets you want to focus on, and you will be able to do a rough estimate on whether a place is worth looking at further in under a couple of minutes, and get to whether you want to look at it with an agent in under 5-10 minutes.