The only problem is he and I live so far apart from each other so I can't just go to his house and learn the ropes.

Determining current rents is not rocket science........ call a management co. or better yet go on an apartment site and come up with your own number.

What surprised me is that there's a lot more apartment for sale than houses (about a 4-1 ratio).

We have a few portfolios of properties for sale, multiple states.Most of the properties are a part of some portfolio.We are trying to sell the entire portfolio, or individual ones.Hopefully someone has gone through the marketing process for a rental portfolio and can shed some light.For now, my plan is to do online marketing (adwords, facebook, bigger pockets).

My current house 3 blocks away in one direction is $350-400k house, and the other direction are $50-75k condos/apartments.

Will Google street view tell you if a particular complex is an MF?

On apartment building Buy and Holds Privatecashfunding.com can do 10% down with 70% 1st, with 20% seller carry back, CLTV  90%.

This is just another reason we don't install carpet in a home/apartment unless the owner (if we are managing for them) absolutely insists. 

A lot of owners there and a quick pitch at the end that you're looking for off-market apartment buildings could potentially get some leads.

There is minuscule chance, an average Joe who wants to be successful in Real Estate, other than borrowing money from family, having many friends, raising capital via syndications, creating a Corporate Entity, ( which necessarily don’t impress me, there 100 unit apartments, over leveraged, I could do in my sleep!