And YES, far FAR too often I am seeing people stack up UN-realized expenses at a compounding rate, to give selves a false sense of "profit" on whatever monthly/quarterly capital there moving around. 

Remember when land buyers pick a target, they have TONS of work to do getting that property from dirt to payday, so they know their purchase choices, and they have a war chest usually stacked up ready to go.

Once you start stacking more and more property loans into your personal name, it can bleed into your personal credit worthiness.This bit me in the butt when I wanted to refinance my own house when rates were in the 2% range.  

You can then get financing either through refinancing the entire debt stack or getting a second mortgage with the same bank that did the first mortgage.  

In my day job I’m an ops professional who manages a tech stack and efficiency is important.

So again I'm able to do that because I've built a life around real estate and it takes time a resources to consistently get deals like that.

You can stack your personal 50%s up for separate ventures while still knocking out deals without your own capital2) Read Raising Private Capital by Matt Faircloth3) One LLC with the S Corp designation to pay yourself a reasonable salary from the flip profits.

I don't recommend throwing the baby out with the bath water, and definitely make sure you understand the nature of the Mentor you choose.BP is a great resource to meet some amazing people. 

I am very interested in real estate investing and flipping (I have a decent amount of construction experience) I was wondering what some good resources are to look at when evaluating a property, especially in the Dayton / Cincinnati area.  

It just does not have a stove.I think you are a great resource for Detroit because you've had success there.