You don't need to...markups in retail are pretty uniform throughout the supply chain, and for public companies like Walmart, you can look at their quarterly filings to determine exactly what their margins are.With contractors, you don't have this same level of transparency, so if you want to ensure that you're getting reasonable prices, you need to do some additional investigation...

It is very important, no matter the investment vehicle, to do thorough due diligence, ask for track records, know the risks, make sure there is a great deal of transparency and excellent communication with any Sponsor. 

Other than that it’s pretty transparent.

Getting financing in the U.S. as a foreign national has come quite streamlined, but I'd recommend understanding your purchasing power up front and getting full transparency on all costs you can expect.

A new federal law levies specific requirements on all association boards with some heavy fines; you can search "Corporate Transparency Act" or read my article on that here.   

Not ideal and not the route I'd advocate, but bearable.In other instances, in which a financial/tax service provider promotes non-compliance to unwitting consumers, the potential costs can be astronomical to all clients.Consumers of financial & tax services should always seek - and get - total transparency from their service/product providers.

He's pretty transparent in saying that investors should expect to be in the deal for 10 years with a 2x or greater exit at the conclusion.

I've personally worked with a handful of "investor-friendly" lenders, primarily on DSCR loans in recent years, and each time I've run into significant delays, lack of transparency about the process, have been fed the requirements in a piecemeal fashion (every few days there's a new random request rather than having it all organized from the start), and have even run into lenders who were substantially misinformed about the real estate industry or the laws that govern it on both a local and federal level.I think there should be a better site to encourage accountability by tracking how long it actually takes each lender to close their loans on average, and what unexpected hurdles investors encounter when trying to work with them.I can't seem to find such a site.

Any tools or methods you recommend for better efficiency and transparency?

It can be for one home or any home that they show you, but you will have to sign one regardless of who is helping you, even if you skip the buyers agent and go directly to the listing agent.The purpose of this is transparency.