Start building relationships with local real estate agents, contractors, property managers, and lenders who are investor-friendly.

Ultimately, my vision is partnering with a private lender so I can spread my funds across multiple deals at once and scale quicker; I'm really happy so far with my agents, contractor, and refi lender, so I feel like getting a great lender would be the next step for me.

I'm trying to plan this out as well as possible to avoid any issues down the road.I've seen the stories where people run into issues meeting this requirement and get scrutiny from the IRS, to me it seems the two biggest red flags might be when they hire a property manager and also when they rarely go out to the property to work on it themselves, always relying on contractors.

As well as parking for contractors during rehab.  

Build a strong local team in each market, including real estate agents, property management professionals, contractors, and lenders.

Not may people know this is a requirement and certification has to be obtained by Landlords doing their own management to management companies as they believe we are acting as contractors. 

This team consists of an Investor Focused Agent, Lender, Contractor, and PM.Read this article on the "core 4".

Build a strong network of lenders, partners, and contractors to achieve your goal.

I'm also a licensed Building Contractor looking to invest in condominiums & duplexes.  

Be careful with that BRRR stuff.I personally would not do Remote BRRR as there is just a lot of risk with 1) risk of embezzlement with contractors 2) change orders and 3) bank doing bait and switch doing a lower appraisal and/or LTV on the refinance.Most service providers net worth is under 500-1M net worth and I just did not feel comfortable working with them because they would screw me over when I wire over 30-50k checks to do work.