I live in California, this is a bay area property.were not looking to move out of state and house hacking is less palatable when a duplex costs 1.6 million.

Typlcally, a lender is going to lend 75% - 90% of the Cost of the project (property price plus rehab cost (scope of work)) or 70% - 75% of the ARV (As Repaired (as completed) Value).

You can say a knife is dangerous because it can cut yourself with it.

I was wondering if there would be any advantage creating a LLC or business to pay for the renovation costs.

Some of our softwares are implementing their own internal AI to help functionalities. 

Folks very often dont  realize the cost of being self employed when every facet of your life comes out of your pocket.

The real prohibitive costs come from the legal, compliance, and reporting requirements of registering a security.

Simply put, we start off with the As Repaired/Completed Value (ARV), then subtract from that number a reasonable profit, the rehab cost (scope of work), which we've gotten good at, a contingency reserve for any "unexpecteds", our cost of capital/carrying costs (interest and costs of the leverage used), and our costs/fees on the buy and sell sides of a flip.

This will save me much more money eventually than the cost of the bookkeeper.  

That's where you should start, because I am afraid you are way off with your cost projections.