Starting an RE investment business looking for guidance

[Justin Sellers]

Hello,

I am new here and looking for any advice you could share with me on how to start up a full scale RE investment business. I have a business partner and to begin, we are looking to flip houses in the Dallas, TX market. We have the lender and a way to locate local deals BUT want to make sure we are doing this the right way in setting up a legitimate company, so I have a few questions that I was hoping someone here could help with.

1. -When setting up the company, should we just set up a general partnership OR an LLC S-corp designation (again, we will be beginning with flipping homes but while we await the capital back from our first project, I was looking to jump into a "buy subject-to" strategy as well that we will be marketing out for deals)
2. -Which PM software is the most cost efficient?
3. -I assume Quickbooks would be a good place to start for accounting purposes OR should I consult with a CPA?

I am sure these are elementary questions but just want to be sure we are doing this the right way to save headaches down the road. Also, any additional advice is welcomed and appreciated and thank you in advance.