Some people aren't nearly as good as they think and their amateurish attempts actually causes them to lose money.If you think it's expensive to hire a professional, try hiring an amateur.That's not just a cute saying.

Most places would require licensed companies to acutally do work on a building like that. 

I'd say to look somewhere that you acutally know people already.

She connected us to our deal finder and our broker (our deal finder ended up becoming our project manager and we established a cut that we would pay him to still be within our target numbers), and we set up a phone call with them to tell them our goals and strategy. they were on board and helped connect us to contractors, all of whom we talked to over the phone and got multiple references.

If you did end up with these options, which is unlikely as people trying to dump 12 at once don't usually want to list 8 and give you a cut on those, most brokerages would be happy with the listings and if you are doing fix and flip on the ones you buy, then they would get those listings as well.

We sent the seller a cute picture of us with our dog and told her how much we would cherish her amazing property (fully genuine).

I'd recommend to continue learning about investing and pay off debts but more importantly acutally save money.

Is there a way to get in contact with somebody who may want to do the legwork themselves and give me a bit of a cut for finding the property, sort of like bird dogging without the possible legal ramifications that vary state by state?

On top of that, single family wasn’t built to be an investment, so couples looking for a cute house with just the right paint color (which has almost no impact on financials) can pay more than you can.

There is also an acute labor shortage in the homebuilding industry.