My cost wont necessarily be the same or comparable as I GC my own projects and have trade skills.

Well, not so fast.For every successful flip, there is an account of some nightmare project that sucked the bank account of someone dry.

Once you feel you've built a strong team with your first property and have solid systems in place, I would then start buying more aggressively and taking on bigger projects.

My husband is leaning toward keeping it since it is a project we would have to deal with. 

I think a lot of people like those on the Forum are entrepenurial thinkers and can design ok on their own, but of course there are some people who cannot design a doghouse and will need you for the whole project, lots of those folks out there..... :-)

Some other investors had purchased it to flip it and decided they had too many projects going to handle one this big.

My manager is largely responsible for that. 

Try interviewing at least three managers.1.

Do you mean it would need an architect because that's required by the jurisdiction, or because the project itself would need an architect's expertise?

For the contractors, there are always going to be ones that have you already saying yes to stuff and will just continue to send crazy change orders, and when they do that is when you stop the project and go elsewhere.