No need to take advantage of the seller/note holder. 

Was financed as an investment property so interest is fairly high at 5.75% given the current low rates looking to see if there are other options (if any) to take advantage of these lower rates.

Appears to be better than ira type options for self employed tax advantaged saving account

This is a unique area where there is an advantage to all size rentals.

There is something to be said about the home field advantage.

You took advantage of them. 

We are particularly interested in cashflowing multifamily properties where a member of the group could live so that we can take advantage of as many first time homeowner perks as possible.My main question is: How should we get started?

One advantage is the time savings on the project.

However, if I had a client who was self-managing certain processes and was doing leasing on their own I would build in a fee structure to avoid my company getting taken advantage of.

Our first purchase, we did not receive 100% of these from the seller and we paid down the road for it because the tenants will definitely take advantage if you cannot prove damages when withholding security deposits.