People will criticize any decision you make. 

I think that's pretty critical - again, especially now. 

The role of the Developer is significant and absolutely critical, and every decision (starting with what, amongst all the options available, should be done with a property) takes a lot of time and experience and knowledge and learning in order to get right. 

I am looking for awesome real estate sites and links that provide users with expertise knowledge on anything related to real estate markets around the world and with information that any potential real estate investor...

In any business there are certain tasks that can be delegated to allow you to focus more on business critical/revenue generating activities.

Your creditworthiness is going to be another critical part of obtaining financing, sometimes even outside of traditional lenders. 

Amenities are critical in today’s competitive value add environment.

As one poster mentioned it’s critical if you do own a a property with an HOA you are actively involved in showing up to the meetings to show you are an owner that actually cares.

3) What are items you suggest are critical to have within the contract from a wholesaler’s perspective?

Never hurts to communicate; but it does if you criticize.