I would say just because the neighborhood is great, the rents are not as much as even a more "unsafe " yet "hot neighborhood's may be.

However, there may be some serious part-time investors who need more active partners and would be willing to let you take a more active role if you invested in one of their deals.

Better off to go with a more complicated Tax Entity.

They can inspect before committing but not after tying it up (or if they do a more intensive inspection they can walk and eat the deposit).

I think the hassle factor with money coming in and out, the difficulty of financing, and UBIT all combine to make actually owning real estate inside an IRA unattractive.As @Dawn Anastasi mentions, making loans with IRA funds is a more attractive option. 

My concern is that though I will be gaining the benefits of starting small; the time, energy and focus that will be required will probably hamper, or possible divert the progress of going for what I logically and intuitively see as a more worthy investment strategy (100+ unit apartments) for myself.

If you're looking to get into a more sophisticated job, dealing with commercial, development, ect, it will help and be required.Not sure where you were planning to go but there a a number of schools with real estate degree programs, some are masters.  

That is a more long term goal though.

This means you make monthly payments to the owner, just as you would a more traditional lender.  

I have different PMs for the properties and I started my own spreadsheet for accounting gains and losses, but I was wondering if someone had a more sophisticated spreadsheet that I could use where I can aggregate all the data to know exactly how much I'm making on these properties.