I hope to take the ~5-hour trip to the Steel City soon to check our their operations. 

That seemed to appease the phone operator until I asked to speak with an account manager about buying the home and he told me that's handled by the REO department. 

They operate like they are selling used junk at a garage sale...….motivated by insecurity.A "good" tenant is one that pays full market rent.

When you own about 32 units your budget might be able to hire Property Management out of your investment and they can probably handle the day to day operations and your time will be reduced while you manage the property management and that might be something you gladly let somebody else do that.You'll have one address instead of 20. 

Buy the stock or REIT you understand how the company operates the biz!

Attorney can help you with this.This should only be done with top flight operators. 

operational cash flow to get started?

The way I operate with my household (and future rentals) is using multiple "micro savings" (--> MS), each with its own designation (e.g. yearly expenses / vacation expenses / general savings etc).

The Operating Agreement must contain language sufficient to address IRA-related issues concerning Prohibited Transactions (26 USC 4975), The Plan Asset Rules, the allowance of subsequent or additional Capital Contributions and Unrelated Business Income Tax (including language that ensures that the Manager of the LLC will prepare and file all necessary tax forms with the appropriate taxing authorities, Federal, State and local).

We'd like to connect with a real estate attorney here in San Diego who is also an investor, or has experience working with investors. ...For starters, I have a 23-page operating agreement for a land entitlement investment that I'd like to have someone look over to be sure it covers us as well as the company who is presenting it to us.