Local real estate investor meetups are a great place to introduce yourself, meet people in your market that you'll inevitably do business with, build a good team, and learn from guest speakers as well as the other meetup-goers.Bonus advice: get started!

If we partner with a builder I am assuming they'd get a percentage of ownership and at that time we'd let them handle everything dealing with the actual development- land clearing, managing the contractors, as well as all other costs.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

Selecting the right lender, this can get done in about 6-8 weeks, if not earlier. 

I am currently interested in getting a multiplex at/around Sweet Home, OR (Portland, OR is an option as well).

As you continue to grow your knowledge in real estate you will know which investing niche fits your needs.

was wondering if anyone had this experience or insight on credit history.Met with a potential tenant for a class B-C type apartment I own and interview went very well, she asked a lot of questions about the unit and how things were run and who to call for utilities and Etc etc.. 

We set the price based on our original assumptions but the offers we received were all well below what we needed. 

If you're well capitalized and simply want to experiment, either Option may suit you.

You could reach out to Kevin Kim at Geraci LLP in CA who's firm does securities and PML law in all states and is intimate with CA, OR, WA, and ID laws as well as corresponding state specific financial institutions governance (in WA it's called DFI or Department of Financial Institutions) and how to navigate their expectations accordingly...