Most of the lenders I work with (provided you have experience and a credit score over 660) would do up to 85% of the purchase price and up to 100% of the rehab costs, provided this doesn't exceed 75% of the ARV.As for the idea of selling the land, great idea.

We were wondering if it would be best for him to get the degree or to drop out and focus on making money and getting experience in real estate instead (or try and do both)? 

Sadly, on BiggerPockets, some are quick to label companies as scams without real experience.

That is part of the problem with a lot of companies (I am not knocking insula as dont have all the info/facts just stating how the business works), they engage brokers to get them loans and the brokers collect a small fee. unfortunately many of the brokers may be similar to real estate wholesalers - have little to no experience. 

With my background in hospitality and a drive to create exceptional guest experiences, I decided to take the leap.

Will just complicate things from our experience.

My long-term goal is to build a portfolio of multifamily rentals while also working as an agent helping investors scale their portfolios.Your experience sounds incredible!

It's now almost impossible to get a mortgage with a FICO score under 560-580 range.Overall, the housing market has higher average FICO scores and more equity than the 2008-2010 period.This makes it much less likely we'll experience another Great Recession, but there are no guarantees.

I am newbie in real estate and I don't have much experience in real estate. 

My experience with the smaller multi-family units has been that more occupants = more wear and tear on your property so the turnover costs are often higher than SFH.