What about their prior landlord-is it a verifiable company or an individual?

It will probably generate more questions, also.

Or should you just do it as an individual?

Yet, if I'm only clearing a couple of hundred dollars a month on a rental property, then doesn't that mean I'd have to own enough properties to generate an amount equal to my personal monthly expenses?

Maybe you should be looking for ways to generate/save some money so that you could have a downpayment or at least have the payments for a loan.

Instead talkng to accountants, lawyers, financial planners and certain friends and family about what you are looking to do and how their clients or each of them individually can participate.

mr landlord, my name is brandon and I may have some undervalued properties that would be of interest to you as income generating rental properties.....

a bank doesn't have the same desperation that an individual might.

About 20-ish years ago our State Supreme Court (lawyers, of course) declared that individuals have the right to choose their own attorney, and thus non-compete clauses in attorneys' contracts could not be enforced (a non-compete clause would prevent an attorney who left one firm from going to another in the same area).

Lawyers charge at least $150 per hour, and will probably generate a lot of unnecessary letters, phone calls, etc.