No appraisal required even at 80% LTV - I confirmed with them yesterday over the phone and made sure they knew it was a rental property.

Get out the phone book and call every little bank in your town till you find the right one willing to do business with reasonable conditions and terms .

In any event, the real answer --- as you know --- is to talk to a CPA or other qualified tax professionals. 

@Josh StackI would just mail them a very professional looking letter letting them know you are interested in purchasing their portfolio.

Be prepared to not get paid much for a couple months while you get things going, and then be prepared for the market to change and give you a dry spell.Some common expectations with having a RE license is that you'll work in a professional industry full of professional people that treat this like a business and treat colleagues as such; However that's not really how it goes.  

This property we were targeting a couple, retiree, single business professional.

I deal with the tenants-- take phone calls, screen applicants, show apartments, collect rent, deal with maintenance issues (scheduling and hiring), find properties, market properties, plan renovations, buy renovation materials, assist with renovations and do bookkeeping for rent collections. 

Besides introducing myself, I'm looking to network with individuals both my age or older who are active on these forums to build a young investors/RE professionals group in Socal.

People hate conflict.....so they ignore what they should do because it can be "messy' and hope for the best....and then seem shocked when the outcome is 100x worseYou don't have to be an a-hole to handle this in a professional, tactful and friendly way......but it should be handled, not ignored

In some areas the potential sellers are getting 20-30 letters every month and they will tell you this over the phone when they call you.