I just lost $10,000 in earnest money, will be sued for the sellers agent's commission, and my agent doesn't get a dime.

During this time you are not generating any return from the money invested in the ADU.

Curious why any tax pro would argue with that.If filing state tax returns did not take any time or money, then there is no harm in filing them.

I've seen too many that prey on newbies and set them loose on the world, begging for "no money down" deals. 

I would focus on saving enough money that if I had a deal go bad, then that money I saved was there to cover it. 

We are also reviewing a company that can use it to scan bank statements and tax retturns to quickly sort where money is spent and if documents are fraudulent.

Its much harder to turn a property around in 6 months expecting to have 100% of your money returned back to you - but if you focus on the right property focusing on highest and best use with an ADU add (like mentioned), in-fill/lot split, or other rehabs - then hopefully a semi-decent property like that will perform like a champ in a few years. 

Being able to purchase a property with only 5% down means you can leverage your money way more effectively.

Hard Money finance, with about $5k of my own funds going into some over-budget costs.

You manually dial until you start making money.