So it usually seems IMPOSSIBLE to find the time, energy or money to pursue it further, but we have both decided to dedicate ourselves towards the long-term goal of transitioning into successful, full-time investors.

I know one big PM in the area that said he dedicates one of his smaller multi's (8 or 12 I think) entirely to these tenants. 

Is your money committed to a particular project or did you just take the loan out but so far it's not dedicated anywhere?

There are several that have somewhat regular listings but it's not like the big cities where there are whole firms dedicated to multis.  

As a current college student, I obviously have little cash available to me at this time but have been dedicating my free time to reading and listening to podcasts on the topic in order to educate myself.

It takes dedication and effort but could pay off big time.

This is going to be a bit of a tough love reply...if you want to invest in real estate long-term or own more than a unit or two, you are not going to want to dedicate your time and energy (and money) debating about whether or not to paint walls that don't need it. 

This is not to say that some smaller companies won't have these things in place but more often than not the larger company will have dedicated staff members that can assist with business planning, accountability, coaching, social media and more than likely a broker in charge who does not sell but is there to manage the agents and the office.Keller Williams has some great programs worth looking into.

I like to dedicated my time the most effective way possible.

We use a file cabinet for hard copies and have a dedicated phone line just for faxes.