What if you call one and they tell you they can come out the same day but it'll be triple the regular rate, or they can come the next day (Monday) at the regular rate? 

Indy does not get the same regular and large influx of people, so it takes more time.   

For example, my current laptop is a MacBook Air circa 2015 and it works just as great as it did when I first got it.If most of your RE related stuff is web based, I'd suggest the smaller, regular MacBook just simply for portability purposes.

They've already been preapproved for more than the purchase price for a regular house. 

Never tried any of the rest, but might now that I had to write them out and think about them. 1) Go to every architect, interior designer, top real estate agents/brokers, loan officers in town and shake hands, drop off do-nuts, take them out for coffee/beer and do it regularly. 2) Hit every REI meeting in town and offer to speak at some about the multifamily and spec building process. 3) You may consider joining and participating in whatever local business communities you are in. 4) Offer referral money to subs. 

On CM, pay him per passed inspection / milestones, back-load his pay on finishing touches, i.e finishing / final punchlist completion 800, the 1,200 regular milestones.

Even in west coast very with low unemployment rate(<1.2%) high income neighbors flipped on regular sized homes are not going well. 45 days market with zero offer vs 1 weekend with 10  offers experienced until a few months ago.

I make a decent living off of my regular job but like I said have to back up for the rainey day.

Since then he has mostly bought apartment complexes and has never lost any money and talks down about owning less than 32 units which usually allows you the chance of hiring an experienced Property Management Company to handle the daily operation that includes the screening and maintenance and you just manage the managers and get regular (once a week) financial statements and you still have positive cash flow.

I didn't think i could successfully pull off the "non-owner" ruse with having to remodel the unit and updating the tenants on a regular basis.