So a room used for laundry that is 100 sq ft (quite common) costs the owner about $72,000 over the course of a decade (in today's dollars). 

Many times they will hold back the renovation costs in escrow and release once you’ve shown the renovated unit and leased it.  

I was wondering if there would be any advantage creating a LLC or business to pay for the renovation costs.

Now a-lot of times you buy a home from someone with seller financing and they hold the note for 6 months to season it and then sell the note to another investor or a firm and then it will most likely show up on your credit because these are more sophisticated investors.In regards to the benefits of owner financing you won't have to pay closing costs to a bank.

Of course it isn't going to work for everyone...then again, I also have many friends with degree's that cost them 6 digits that cannot get a job in their field!

The savings from either will be many times the cost of the lawyer.  

be sure to stick to your 70% rule for the flip, know your numbers. run everything conservatively. overbudget for time and costs but 15-20% Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

It normally doesn't cost you any money to open and to be able to access that large amount of equity to buy or stabalize your current portfolio allows you so much more opportunity costs.For instance, I took a $200K LOC out on my primary residence when I first started in real estate.

I wasn’t prepared to lose so much of my savings as carrying cost basically I paid for the tenants to live there for 3 months + my own living expenses in that time.

We did get much lower costs when we changed to minisplits but the initial cost is high.