This is sort of the root of syndication deals, which are usually more complicated but essentially pay the syndicator part ownership for finding the deal, putting it together, and managing it.On your question about contacting MF owners directly, yes I've done that successfully in the past.

I would love to get my feet wet in some sort of real estate business whether it be a real estate legal assistant, working in a property management company or working in a real estate broker company, etc.

if she financed with a 20 yr loan it would be paid off by the time she would retire ....This is basically what I did altho I invested a larger amount of $$. 

Some larger lenders may actually have more lenient appraisals due to the volume that they handle, maybe? 

Sort of like sidewalks (which have precedent that seems to be relatively homeowner friendly around here), but this isn't quite that.  

There is a handful of companies doing a good job and a larger, more evident handful doing a horrid job...

Means larger payments. 

We are in talks with a few larger local operators on some multi family portfolios.

We’re a one stop shop of sorts. 

Oh, one other thing worth mentioning -- if you have a large farm area that you're looking at, considering separating the housing supply data between areas with good schools and areas with bad schools.You'll find big disparities there, and in some places, it's profitable to flip in small pockets of good schools, even if it's not profitable to flip in the larger geographic area.