Your mentor has needs; try to meet them and develop a mutually beneficial relationship.A mentor can benefit your growth, but it's not as simple as one post on a forum full of strangers.

While it’s relatively simple and can help you find deals, it’s also time-consuming.

For something as simple as a deck the permit approval takes a MONTH then they want to inspect the hole for the footers, then they want a separate inspection once the footer is poured and the window to get those inspections done is from 1-3pm and maybe the guy shows up in that time window, maybe he came early and you missed him and need to reschedule, or maybe it's 3:30 when he shows up in a terrible mood and fails you for some ridiculous reason, or maybe they tell you at 3:45 when you call in to see where the inspector is that he won't make it that day and you've wasted 4 hours waiting on some city employee to show up... there is no way to price that into a quote.A more experienced contractor will have better pricing from local suppliers they use and trust than you will ever get as an out of state investor - they spent years earning those discounts and trust the product supplied. 

Is DIY cost segregation allowed?

You can usually find some events by doing a simple google search.

For those of you that do an online application or furthermore just a simple "form" that is completed online, how do you go about acquiring and subsequently providing proof of obtaining such authorization without a signature?

Also, as listed on Redfin it is a "Fee Simple Ownership", even though it's a duplexed condo unit in a 4-unit building.

I would advise against for residential customers, since those units are simple and have straight forward maintenance that can be covered in an annual “tune-up”.

That 24-hour delay cost him a $40,000 deal that was well within his grasp.The lesson here is simple: time kills deals.

Keep it simple and keep your documents ready.