1) I do have a Landlord agreement with the Power Company now, but as this all occurred within the first few weeks of taken over the property, not all of the units had been transferred to me correctly (this one being one of them).

All funds should transfer through title or your closing attorney, as appropriate, at closing.

Hypothetical question,If a borrower of an active mortgage is at pre-foreclosure and they decide to transfer the deed to another individual, what are the consequences for borrower and if any for the new individual that acquired the deed?

With Tranactional funding you are actually buying the property, it is being transferred into your name then you can sell it to your investor as a purchase vs. a wholesale deal.

My concern with REITs is that I don't know how to reliably pick those that will outperform both the market and direct real estate investments.

What I do currently:Allocate a bank account from which to pay all expenses associated with the rentals.Deposit all rents into that account and use it to pay rental expensesAt the end of the month withdraw whatever money was left over to bring my balance back down to $10k and use that to pay down my personal mortgage.What I think I should do for cash damming:Allocate a bank account from which to pay all expenses associated with the rental (Done)Deposit all rents into my personal account and use them to pay my personal mortgageAt the end of the month transfer whatever money was spent in the rental account back in from my the rental LOC to bring my balance back up to $10kI can now deduct the interest on the LOC which I'm not longer paying on the personal property.

Can anyone give me suggestions where to start looking for a reputable and reliable contractor who is experienced with investors?

@Barry Sievers did you transfer the properties into the LLC yet? 

Some buy w their name and then transfer to LLC but bank can call the Due on sale clause which is the reason I don’t do that..

I can always transfer in money if something big occurs.