I am going to be the contrarian on this subject.. 1. the pre license course is valuable as it teach's the vocabulary of real estate and the basic laws of your state.. its dirt cheap and one of the better ways to build your foundation. 2.

Absolutely, creating a baseline business plan is a crucial step when starting in real estate (or any field) because it provides clarity, direction, and a strategic foundation for your efforts. 

Horizontal cracks on the foundation may just be wear & tear.

You have to keep the same foundation, but there is no requirement for a home to be "live in" ready to do a 203k loan.

You can then take that plan to foundation companies and get bids for that work. 2.

EM deposits of 10 to 30k go to title with instructions to release them to me once Foundation is in  that sort of thing.. but the key here is mutually agreed.

Without this foundation any money spent on gurus, courses, books mentorships that teach techniques and methods is WASTED, even if the methodology being taught is valid.  

That would be a foundation issue to make sure the current foundation is able to hold two more floors on top and also a height issue for the town for the area.

Sometimes they still have the garage door and drywalled the inside... meaning that they did not do a foundation on the garage door line : they did not use a deputy inspector, they did not use the appropriate hold downs (metals) for structural integrity, they did not use the right calculations for framing (ie rafters for ceilings ) that are often changed in a garage conversion... did not use proper headers for windows and doors... etc etc I have been faced with these a lot when representing the buyer and I would : 1.

New drywall, mechanicals, windows, electrical, roof, siding- essentially new from foundation up.