If you're solid on the wholesaling front, then either flipping or buy and hold would be logical extensions for you, and plenty of forums about both. 

But, in most states, if you're not the owner then you can't manage it without a license.Trust Account: If your rent collection is not an online ACH/e-check transfer (which I highly recommend setting up for all properties -- from the tenant straight to the owner), then you cannot collect the rent without setting up your own trust account.

Private lending and flipping are covered extensively throughout the forums/blogs, so you certainly came to the right place to learn.What part of SoCal are you located/interested in?

As to consumers, any extension of credit credit to a consumer requires a license, you can find the scoop on the CFPB web site ad in the definitions of the Dodd-Frank Act as amended. 

Collections have a clock affected by state law.  

Some of the other info you wrote really sounds like sob story material - the landlord has no obligation to find out that your student loans that are supposed to be deferred are in collection, or that your car note wasn't paid - but the LL does have an ethical obligation to provide you the information that was used to reject your application, since they collected your money. 

My long term goal is to collect residential rental properties without the intention of reselling them (not yet, at least).

Fits you perfectly bro.Buy your first house as an owner occupied FHA Multi Family (3.5% Down) collect rents, live there for a year, get used to being a landlord and the responsibilities involved...after 1 year go buy a nice single family home with a Fannie Mae Loan - 5% Down and rent out the unit you moved out of in the multi.

I've been in extensive contact with the seller and the property manager, but now we're beginning to get overwhelmed thinking about ALL THE DETAILS before we put in an offer or close.  

Evictions can take a while, and damage needs to be fixed, and then some kind of marketing for a new tenant  I recommend three months reserves for every property  I recommend that you be licensed so that you can show the property in case it interferes with your realtor laws in Oklahoma  I also recommend that you have some kind of a collection company that takes the payment directly from the tenant buyer to the mortgage company not to the seller  If you do have reserves, and the tenant buyer wants to buy the property, I use a reverse assignment technique that basically create your equity in the contract in the form of a note, attached to the property, and instead of two closings you have one closing, a new contract from the seller to the tenant buyer, but you get paid when the house closes and pays off your noteI love Oklahoma City because it has great  Yeilds between what you get from rent and what your mortgage payment is PITI