We were in a financial position where we could keep our existing home, upgrade, and purchase another home.

@Dave Foster is a great resource on 1031 exchanges. 

You can also use online resources such as City Data to search demographics in the area. 

The reality is most financially independent people went through a decade + of working 60-80 hours a week.

Prioritize your financial stability.

Our limited resources though will (probably?!)

I do not have many resources, but I am comfortable taking some risk and relying on my intelligence and research.

Save your money until you get financial backing of some sort.

I'll add a few more things that can have a huge financial impact: required reserves, LTC (loan to cost), application or other upfront fees, and prepayment penalties.As a fellow flipper, I think it's important to have reserves, but they shouldn't be required as part of your funding.

Forgive me kind folks here for the many questions, I consider myself a newbie and believe that even if my questions are basic and many, I persevere and try to know from resources and of course great folks like you all here to grow and learn to make the right decisions.