Send him a letter, emphasize that you are personally yourself the end-buyer, include proof of funds, include something attesting to you being financeable (unless your proof of funds is for the full cash purchase price).If he owns 20 local businesses, good chance he's in at least one chamber of commerce, and if he's not, he 100% knows people that are, who will spill the beans and offer to do an intro if you mention you're interested in buying a gas station over a beer or a meal (there's probably like 3 people in that city that fit this description, why not get introduced to all 3?)

If I personally understand the skin in the game first hand, I would think this will help me become a better manager of my team on it in the future right? 

The turn-key model works well for me as I am a full time CPA working at a large tech company in the SF Bay Area.

Also, while I've read some horror stories about assessed value increases, our personal portfolio came out relatively unscathed during this recent batch of tax bills.

I plan to hand write the letter to keep it personable and local.

I am in talks with a reputable company that signs up proteges in commercial RE, but I am struggling a bit with their terms: the sign-up fee ranges from $10k - $40k, and a definite 50/50 profit split up to $1M mark, meaning the individual gets up to $500k, which could come from cash flow, cashout refi, sale, etc.

On a separate note, if my personal home and all my business is in the state of Michigan at this point, would there be any benefit to designing the business as a series outline or simply a parent/child LLC set up where the parent LLC would be created in a more tax advantaged state such as TX, WY, NV etc?

If rent is not paid we follow up personally.

If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

I've managed C, B and A properties with rent ranging from $500 for a garage apartment up to luxury apartments.