Attend meetups and meet as many people in RE as you can.

The only thing I’m hesitant with is their monthly income being 2.7x the monthly rent (plus 5-10% annual bonus which brings it closer) been following the 3x the monthly income qualification.

Account Closed is correct, absolutely do both.. especially if youre just starting out even Grant Cardone started with a SFR. but for the sake of his question lets say you have 100k saved up for a real estate endeavor TOTAL, and you find a SFR that fits the 1% ratio (100k house that brings in 1k rent) that is doable if you calculate it out that would equal a 8.2% cash on cash IF it stays at a 90% occupancy rate. on the other hand if you invest that 100k into a limited partnership with a company that invests in value add apartments will now your cash on cash can be a preferred 10% with a target of 16-20% IRR which would essentially double your money in 2-5 years.. in this scenario the SFR would take sweat equity from you and risk while only returning a measly 8% CoC while the MF would be completely passive allowing you to learn and grow without hindrance with a 10% CoCnow we are over simplifying but I hope this made sense.. cuz my brain hurts ;D

Sometimes, the most honest answers come from people who have no stake in whether you buy the property or not.Good luck!

Do you like to do business with people trying to do a workaround?

You can either cancel and they may reduce the fee to try to save the deal or take the hit and leave a foul review so people know of this bad practice 

Do people put exercise equipment like treadmill or stationary bike in their mid term rentals?

First thing I would do is bring the loan current and out of foreclosure.

I said I want to network with people.

The problem with rent by the room is you end up becoming a counselor or a people manager.