If you buy a minimum of about 30 apartment units you can afford a Property Management Company and save your self the daily operations and maintenance which s typically what you want with a W-2 job. 

Open houses are typically great, low pressure ways to get inside houses if you are only trying to get comfortable looking at properties.

I usually never recommend refinancing so high because you typically have PMI and a higher interest rate.

You will typically find rates across the board.

Well, typically a financing contingency, if it doesn’t specify a max rate, usually references “market rate”.

The property manager said that she typically does not consult the Owner when leasing the property, and had never disclosed these new leases to the previous Owner or listing agent. 

Typically, a lease should state that there is "joint and several liability in the case of multiple Tenants."

However, not all self-directed companies will allow the LLC structure.When setting up any of these accounts, it's important to know ahead of time the compliance rules that must be adhered to, which primarily relate to self-dealing with your tax-advantaged funds.

How do I ensure that the deal is structured in a way where I can get them their capital back after the financing period, and is this something that's typically done? 

TIC ( tenants in common) structure.This is different from a DST in that each person typically has a voting share.