I haven’t been able to find good answers to my situation, maybe you can help: how does the process differ when you have an inherited tenant and the previous landlord had an active rental license?

Between MLS and "off market," i haven't seen much of a price difference, in fact I have seen many instances where off market was a worse investment.

There is a huge difference between managing 30 or fewer units for less than 3 or 4 years (perhaps even on a part time basis), vs. over 100, 500, or more for 10 years or longer.

I have been having a few recurring issues in different rentals and I have been debating on buying my own sewer scope.

Just start underwriting deals within one asset class and make offers.Multi and retail are wildly different, but what price point?

It's really no different than trading a stock. 

Keep in mind that every real estate investment experience is different and that there is no one-size-fits-all strategy.

It is not even about good sponsor vs bad sponsor ; because just about everything , everything is different with different asset class, different market risk. 

All of these auction sales across in different cities have stopped being a place I pay attention to.

17 Years in, the space is much different now than it was.