The primary reason I was looking to do the rent by the room approach is that as far as personal space goes it's not a huge concern of mine to sacrifice some comfort for a year while I have to live at the residence.

Then you could go in without an agent if you feel comfortable however, you will rarely overpay with a buyer's agent but you have to find good ones and commit to them or they will leave you on the dust as time is their most valuable asset.

As @Pat L. rightly said, you have to get comfortable with debt to scale in real estate.

I'm located in Northern NJ, just outside of NYC where both property values and property taxes are ridiculous so in looking to acquire my 1st property was leaning toward a BRRRR House hack situation of ideally a 4-unit...

That's my concern, in this market, getting the property sold could be hard with the  current environment..

We pride ourselves in offering quality units for people to call their home, and I would never want someone whom is dissatisfied with their living space here to feel like they have to stay out of contractual obligation, so I am willing to release you from your lease term early if you are not comfortable with our threshold of service."

It seems that people now have more information about their work situation so they feel more comfortable moving and leasing a property. 

I really like the investor community and environment there so I am growing there.I went to school in Columbus and would definitely invest there but I’m not actively searching.

.#6  Yes please do share that as well if you are comfortable. 

Reality is no body knows what the environment will look like in 6 months or a year from now.