None wanted to give me at least an estimate without architectural drawings, which I guess is understandable.

That is roughly 9% rent price appreciation over the original rent estimates. 

Using Rentometer or BP rent estimator to get an idea of the LTR rent makes a lot of sense.

My partner called the owner who had give the original estimate, said no way are we paying until the job is done. 

Fair enough, I have partial ownership of a commercial (apartment) building in the Bay Area and I would estimate it as a Class A- to maybe Class B - great location, great tenants, nice amenities (not high end like gym, new pool, community room with big screen TVs, etc), high rents, but building is older (built in 1950s).One investor I saw post that they look at where Starbucks and Costcos are opening and possibly factor that into looking at different markets.

Finally… do not assume that “Your” real estate agent is working for your best interest… unless… BOTH of the following are satisfied… 1) the agent Signs a “Buyers Agent” contract where it is stated that YOUR interests comes firstAND… 2) the agent / your buyers agent has no affiliation with any other party nor has any financial interest in this transaction other than as stated in the docs… and has no association with any party in the transaction… other than as stated in the disc… you explain up front that any all buying agreements are not binding until after you have AT LEAST a Preliminary Good Faith Estimate/ HUD1/  enhanced financial disclosure… and that ALL parties/ entities and all fees are clearly disclosed.

Also if anyone can explain how much I should have saved to get started and a rough estimate of how many single families I should have before moving on to small apartment complexes etc.If you have read this far I greatly appreciate it, thank you so much!

I put property taxes 6k/year on each(Even though that's way higher then what it actually is, but the county tax estimate says its around that much for each) and for insurance, I just put 1,100/year on each.If there's more info needed let me know.

Quote from @Mike Sfera: for a duplex, is the BP rent estimate for per unit of combined?

If a variance is needed, they're estimating 3-6 months, up to a year potentially.