What I'm most concerned about is the Project 2025 plan to gut HUD and most social services.

Most lenders are going to want to see a few big things from the ownership group. 1) The borrower will be the enitity (LLC, S-Corp, etc) and any owner with usually 20% or more of ownership in the entity will be expected to guaranty the loan, 2) We'll want to see some experience doing similar projects from at least one of the main owners, 3) We'll want to see bank statements showing liquidity enough to cover the intial cash injection (down payment), the closing cost, and some cash in reserve.

I'm doing this because then I can cashflow the renovation without having to take out reno loans, it takes a bit longer because projects get done as I have the money to do them but for me I prefer to be a bit more risk adverse and have less debt. 

who would post tons of local rental listings and had a massive following on IG and YT.

That would be a prohibited transaction and self-dealing and would cause you to incur massive penalties, blowing up your IRA.  

They said that kind of project would basically convert the property to an apartment building and requires R6B zoning.

List of all items remodeled and how much they cost and the comps in the area (some appraisers come from out of the area and you know best what the comps are and numbers are).Other option: if the numbers turn to be tight and you cannot refi, I would think about selling it lower and taking less on the deal to get your hands washed from the project.

I have $30k to put into the project.

32k or even 42k on a half million dollar house doesn't sound all that good.What's your projected cash flow after all your expenses including a likely higher mortgage payment than the current owners?

If your company goal is to buy and hold real estate and develop, I think that will keep you plenty busy and just skip flip projects.