We are extremely passionate about real estate and providing as much value as possible to consumers.

The former shows a pattern of bad consumer spending, the latter shows someone who had an unforeseen medical expense and also got into a house that they couldn't afford and now they're about to lose that house (and the payment) and should have no problem paying the rent on my rental house. 

You're in a position where you're much more liable for breach of fiduciary duty, consumer fraud or professional liability claims if either of you messes up on a deal. 

I could be wrong and cleveland licensing is inexpensive and not too time consuming but I just know here in CA it was probably close to $2000 total after association fees, lockboxes, exam fees, monthly dues at the brokerage, etc etc.

Starting  a GC business is a difficult path and time consuming.

Maybe bill your services as rehab/reno rather than wholesaling, but I don't know if there are state-specific laws for licensing and consumer protection that will apply in that instance that would stop you from doing it. 

Consumer debit?

I am pretty good in the Buy & Hold field of the real estate business but its really hard to scale and it seems to consume alot of my time when I should be working on new projects instead of taking care of crappy tenants and old houses.

@Lane Babb It's far more time consuming than you think. 

IMO Redfin is the best out of the free search sites available to consumers and is just as accurate as Realtor (with better UX), because it's an IDX feed coming from the MLS but at least in my area the MLS still updates slightly faster and seems to be more accurate but perhaps that's just because of the two MLS's overlapping here.