Lubbock has a low barrier to entry and has several backup economic drivers by being the primary hub (agriculture, financial, healthcare, material goods, transportation, entertainment) for an area the size of most states east of the Mississippi.

Is there any recommended material I can absorb to help me achieve my goals?

The 10% is probably for ordering items and being there when goods arrive, unboxing and removal of packing materials, assembling any furniture that needs it, placement and moving things around, putting up artwork, and washing new plates, silverware, cooking pans, coffee carafe, prewashing all sheets, towels, and linens etc. 

The best thing to do would be to consult an attorney, but likely, that is not an option for everyone starting out.I'm not an attorney, and this is not legal advice, but some of the information that we include in our contracts is:- A clear scope of work - Payment schedule / Milestones- Change order approval process- Allowances for finished materials- Reasons to terminate the contract- Expectations for start date (X amount of time after final plans /permits are received or X amount of time after the contract is executed)- General schedule and timeline (This is where you could specify an end date - however it may be better use incentives rather than liquidated damage if your general contractor is late - we've done both, but found General Contractors respond better to getting something if they get done early instead of being punished for being late. 

About 8 satellite dishes hung off the outside all over the place, and many tenants each paid for their own cable internet/TV account.

Shorter term solution, probably could be done in 5 hours by someone handy for less than $200 of materials. 

If you do it yourself , you deduct the cost of materials .

(I find BP to be the most helpful community on the internet)

The new wholesaler, while well-intentioned, caused all of this by trying to broker a deal on the internet with no experience, by not vetting the title company to make sure they were real, by not knowing what they were doing, and by tying up that seller's property with no plan or expertise to get it sold.

If the separating wall is a load bearing fire wall, it would have 2 sets of framing material on either side, essentially you have 2 completly independent houses joined by the roof, you can go in the attic and see if you see sheetrock going to the ridge of the roof.