You'lll need to hire someone local that can be your "agent", who should also be prepared to represent you in court (accompanied by an attorney of course).

Mistakes in the search and examination of title, the preparation of the commitment and closing of the transaction happen every day due to inexperience, rush to satisfy demands to close and yes negligence, which generally is not fraud. 

Check your contract and make sure you have this language in it.If so, I recommend that you cancel the contract immediately; to do so, you will need to have your realtor prepare a cancellation addendum with you will sign, get the buyer to sign, before sending it to the title agent for return of the buyer's escrow.  

As the landlord, you have to agree to the lease assignment or demand a new one (considering that it's an MTM) and that entails whatever deposit and/or background checks you may require. 

My wife and I are closing on a property on Dec. 28th.Best advice I can extend is to avoid over-analyzing or over-preparing.

So since August I've been looking into house hacking and talking to one of my friends who does rentals. I moved into my gf's family's home in October so I could work and save up money. My goal is sometime in May, and ...

Any suggestions, links, and/or advice you can share so that I can prepare in the next couple months would be greatly appreciated.

I’m preparing for objections.

And prepare for longevity.

It seems to me reasonable to declare myself a real estate professional this year, and in preparation I have been documenting my hours through a tracker with supporting emails, photos, etc.