Pay by the hour with bonus set for call-backs and appointments or other goals.

Bonus would be that you and the wife can live in the flip but not necessarily in a construction zone. 

I liked the idea of proposing relocating a driveway for renters on the other side of the house, which is easy to do and just abandon use of the other driveway and garage (though the 2 car garage would be a sweet bonus).

This is the bonus tell them a lot of these deals won't work for you and you will refer them back to them for possible listings.

Doing that, instead of putting down $30,000 - $40,000 on a more traditional $125,000 +/- home or duplex, would, I think allow me to acquire two properties a lot faster.... plus, again, the added bonus of the cash flow on the first property. 

Plus the added bonus of a commission, or a reduction in purchase price.

Bonus question: opinions on rezoning/repurposing adjacent SFR to commercial uses which are catered to students? 

It would be a bonus if they could integrate with Buildertrend too.

He estimates that I can use bonus depreciation to get effectively $900k of depreciation in the first year. 

My current property was bought for a little more than land value at the time, but 14 years later, the same land would cost nearly three times what we paid, and the "free" 4 bedroom 3000 sq ft home is still a bonus, even though it could still use some more "fixing up".