My rule of thumb for rehab costs is try to gain at least $2 value increase for every $1 spent on labor and materials.

In addition to the podcast, blogs, and forums, I found the BP books to be super helpful and easy to digest: http://biggerpockets.com/books and there's also a free intro video course that has a lot of the same material as the Book on Rental Property Investing: https://www.biggerpockets.com/courses/a-beginners-introduction-to-real-estate-investing

Listen to everything, take notes and also consider using FIVERR.Com for inexpensive business assistance (promotions, business promotion/marketing, etc. 

Offer to pay him by the square foot and you buy the materials.

There is no self promoting but there are great turnkey providers in TX.

Investors generally want to pay for direct labor and direct materials and not pay for the contractor risk (OSHA, aebestos, LNI, litigation, construction defect risk management, lead based paint, surprises, injuries, etc.) 

I am reading/studying the beginners guide and I look forward to purchasing some more material from the site.

If you think these posts are long winded, you would hate the in depth materials we supply to clients.One last thought on this old topic of who has been caught - Would you publicly acknowledge being caught and fined if you did not have to?

We are talking about spending 50k-150k in rehab costs per house, subbing out every job (I also buy almost all materials for the jobs but I do not pick it up!

I heard that there might be a sale tax exemption program when purchasing renovation materials and etc.