By priming first, and then potentially waiting a month or more to paint the interior would for sure be a hassle to the painters, costing you more at the end of the project.

My wife is the painter but she asked me and that's out of my league so here I am! 

So bad you do not live here :))) really yes, I could find affordable painter here but I am not sure if my guy will offer me this level of bid.

Some of the bigger issues that I ran into are  that EVERYONE is a plumber, electrician, painter, or whatever you're looking for at the time. 

It is currently rented to my painter for $1000 a month (he offered to paint the exterior for a discount of $250/mo for 1 yr) and will rent for $1250 after he buys a house in a year. 

I have the handyman/painter in the first/second day, and then the cleaners and carpet cleaners in the second and third. 

If they take their time going through a home teaching me their trade then I know they are proud of their work.I have a painter and handyman I have used on my past rehabs that are reasonably priced and do good work.  

I'll post pics of the Menards counters at a current house once my painter is done

Personally, I do it as early as possible; because my painters also sub-contract a lot of the finishing work, they'd rather paint with the house empty and then touch up the paint after all the rest of the work is done than to have to paint around finishings.

Would you have your painters paint?