I currently work as a full time auditor, and was hoping that I can put in extra hours each week to try to even close one deal, but as you said, it would be a full-time job itself.

I think we’ve been leaving money on the table for YEARS since his dad, who retired from the Ohio State Auditors office, has been preparing our taxes.  

. :)What these accountants seem to rely on is the combination of a very low probability of an audit to begin with, and then an even lower probability of an auditor raising the land allocation issue, and then an almost zero probability of the auditor trained well enough to contest it.So you will probably get away with 80/20, but it still does not make it right.

The county auditor website where we invest allows you to screen for 4-19 units in different neighborhoods so we could put together a pretty targeted list. 

These are the compliance auditors and examiners for institutions generally, this is still a gray area as you may have a small bank officer who has had to self-study through this maze , then you may have a compliance officer from a large institution who has attended formal training, so consider that. 

I've had an auditor argue for 2 hours over $48 in tolls at the 25% bracket.

Would being an auditor for real estate companies be beneficial to starting real estate investing and learning the basics?

There are firms that specialize in small corps about to become public for SEC audits, there are firms that audit HOAs, and on and on...Alsi most furms, it is actually a staff auditor that may or may not have their CPA licensure that actually performs the audit.  

Unless he is approached by someone with a badge and gun, I would find a qualified Enrolled Agent who specializes in audit or collection issues.

Somewhere searching around on the IRS web site, I found a set of guidelines for auditors on this topic.