I had some thoughts that can't get off my head, but I know there are a lot of experienced and knowledgeable personals on this platform so I would like to ask everyone their thoughts on the route an aspiring real estate developer should take.

I had underestimated how much of both I would need starting out, and TBH had I known I probably would have avoided going this route. 

As for contacting sellers, you could always go the standard route of a realtor who's likely got methods for reaching out to homeowners.

Unless you plan on opening walls to re-route plumbing, you may be out of luck on splitting up the hot water from common to individual.

I'm leaning towards this route but feel I may be throwing too much at them by making them sign 2 contracts 1 month apart, if they decide to resign.

A friend of mine went this route, used to borrow money from me and now people are hitting him up to borrow from him (showing off his shiny new truck hehe).

Hard money debt servicing costs go in with the regular mortgage cost for the ongoing total debt servicing cost which, combined with taxes, gets subtracted from NOI to give you the cash flow number. 

My fiance and I started a small online retail business and so far it's doing decently well but I quickly realized it was not the route to financial freedom but more of a hobby/ nice supplemental income generator.

Regular people can't invest in a business in China. 

I'm talking about tenants who throughout the pandemic regularly still paid rent, just all of a sudden I have realized more are struggling.