He is almost certainly wrong, and on both counts. 

Personally, I count everything as cogs from the beginning.

Make sure you are counting and recording hours that matters.

Lot's of ways one can offer various ways to make it worth it to one, saying something to effect of making ___ payments, offering cross-collateralization etc etc.. 

Yes, even counting the wonderful Cali appreciation.If you run the numbers at 50% down, @ 7%, PITI is $4500 per month!

In my mind, a multi-member LLC where my wife and I are 50/50 partners make sense, but I don't know if that will cause problems at tax time with counting losses from the LLC against my active income.

@Ming Li HerreraRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

I've seen new houses built in 7 days from the day the foundation was cured but there was tons of planning which isn't counted. 

Many people with the goal of growing their unit count brag about their hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in real estate.

I have done my own liens in the past, however if you don't know what you are doing it can easily get messed up and possibly not count as a lien.