Using my REA Sole proprietorship for flipping/buy & hold?

[Shane Short]

Hey everyone!

This may be a question that has been asked many a time, but I'd like to customize it and ask it in a way that reflects my situation. So I've been interested in real estate investing for years, and I decided to take my first steps! I was hired by Century 21, and they are helping me get my REA License, then I will be working as an agent under them, and mentoring under one of their top brokers. I'm currently an Engineer by trade, working 3 nights per week, so I will use my days to work as an REA until I make the full transition. 

I know a lot of people go on about how you don't need a Real Estate License in order to invest, but I could use the extra money, and I think it would provide a good learning experience, and I wanted to... so, that's that. But I do have a few questions to ask, and I'm hoping you guys can help, those questions are:

1. As a Real Estate Agent/Broker, I obviously plan to have a Sole Proprietorship, with this SP, can I also use this SP when investing in properties in the future? Say I invest in an MFR and SFR, and whatever else, can I use my REA SP for write off's, tax purposes, etc?

2. Where is the best place for me to go to learn about the wonderful secrets of Taxes? Write-offs, knowledge to lower my taxes substantially, write-off's you don't commonly think of, things like "paying your kids 12k a year", and "using 'vacations' as 'team building' exercises for said employees, etc.

3. I always hear about corporations, Robert Kiyosaki drills corporations into your head for better tax rates, along with Warren Buffet, and multiple other articles/ books I read. Are they just referring to owning a business period for write off's, or are they referring to strictly Corporations? And if they are referring to Corporations, what are the stipulations? Why not just open a Corp instead of an SP, or LLC?

4. Where do YOU find the best leads? Cold calls? Facebook? 

So far that's the extent of my questions, if I think of more I will update this thread, any help is greatly appreciated!

Regards,