So many practical reasons to invest locally when starting out, but the cost of entry is so low I can't ignore the opportunities...

Except:For cases limited to the Hennepin or Ramsey County Housing Court, Rule 603 of the MN General Rules of Practice may allow a principal (or agent) of the corporation or LLC to sign court papers or appear in court on behalf of the business entity.

I'd tend to steer people away from the practice rather than coach on how to do it -- there are better business models that are focused on adding value that I'd rather see people embrace.My meetup is really about sitting down and talking nuts and bolts, and, while I am agent, property manager, contractor, etc, I don't host the meeting to sell you anything nor do I charge anything to join, which many other meetups do.

You were not told about the work location until after closing, which means you acted in good faith and had every intention of owner occupying just like you promised at the closing table, but something you did not and could not have anticipated came up.Save that email, or tell your HR person to put in writing somewhere [let's pretend April 3rd close date] "as you recall, we informed you on April 7th that you will be expected to relocate to XYZ when you start this new job

Not  totally ready yet to purchase, but thought it would be a good practice. 

Also - would it be bad practice to moderately increase the rent (they haven't had an increase in about 3 years and their yearly $/sq ft is slightly below the market).  

I would like to begin looking into single to fourplex residential locations to invest in and want to get practice on analyzing deals.

Lots of military in the area, so a higher-than-average density of folks who wanted to enjoy the American dream, bought a house, and then received orders requiring them to relocate.

I will be relocating to College Station/Bryan, Texas this summer. 

I understand what cap rate was originally designed to do (as David pointed out) but in practice I see cap rate being defined and described the way it was NOT originally designed to do.I keep running into posts where the "experts" would define cap rate as follows:"The capitalization rate is the rate of return on a real estate investment property based on the income that the property is expected to generate.