They all said the original contractor’s work had been fine—even the tiling was far better than what the 2ndcontractor did as a redo.I heard later that Joey, the 2nd contractor was spreading it around town the reason he hadn’t finished my job was because I was slowing things down by changing everything and, also, that I owed him a lot of money.

As long as you are in a decent area and do proper screening, you will be fine in NJ. 

They were fine with my score (about 740), but have issue with the percentage of personal credit I am utilizing, so that discussion also petered out.Apparently, I have a lending profile right now, that is not attractive to mainstream lending programs.Any advice?

I know so many good people in the RE space that I know I should be just fine. 

The most useful switch I made was from a vendor who kept insisting the water was fine (it wasn't and no, the chemicals didn't just need more time) to a true pro who doesn't gouge us for maintenance and does a consistently great job.

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs: Quote from @Engelo Rumora: @David KanarekI don't think I have ever seen better investigative research than this.Hat's off to you and sorry for your troubles and everyone else's.Please don't investigate me haha Engelo this is all the Due diligence that should have been done prior to investing its fine after the fact but that's not going to get their money back..

If you find a solid, boots on the ground realtor/PM who has experience in the flip business you should be fine. 

The asset may be fine, but the budgets are too small to actually execute.  

I'm fine with doing some minor fixes and improvements to a property: Adding overhead lighting/fans, better flooring, maybe redoing a main bathroom.

I got my GC license a couple years ago so I could build houses myself as I was sick of dealing with contractors.I've hired plenty of contractors that were not licensed/insured and it went fine.