2 - How important is the local employment opportunities to a professional that will usually commute and/or work out of their home?

It sounds like the original developer/builder had a bigger lot and subdivided to get more money per lot... not other way around :P Not sure if your plan will work out for the best here! 

Based on your current FHA situation, I don't think these will help (they would also have to be a primary residence) but here are 2 programs that could allow 0% down payment:There are VA loans if you are associated with the military: https://www.valoans.com/Or USDA Loans if there is a qualified rural area nearby:https://www.usdaloans.com/program/eligibility/Or if you can find an owner with some equity built up then maybe you could work out a seller financing deal.

SureLy they will alter especially with unexpected expenses like a bad ac unit not working and your tenants are complaining to get a new system ASAP then you panic and call the most expensive ac company in the city then they will come and quote you on a new unit for over 1k$ and you pay for it only to find out later your old ac unit only problem was a 10$ blown capacity...

Bonus points if whomever I speak with can also give basic advice on estate planning as it pertains to the investment properties.On a related note (but probably more appropriate for the forum titled "Private Lending & Conventional Mortgage Advice"), I'm also interested in learning about how different ownership and income distribution scenarios might affect our borrowing capacity, especially cash-out refis.

Will be an owner occupied in California just have to work out when you are heading to California.

My experience--they don't work out very often--not sure why, it just works that way.

Trust takes time to cultivate.My recommendation is this: start building up a "call list" of people who have capacity. 

You can contact the heir's but you'll need to find out who the PR (Personal Representative) is.The PR has the legal capacity (authority) to sell the property.

It also depends on how much work you plan to do yourself but your comment on wanting it to be passive leads me to conclude you plan to hire the work out.