Have you spoken to anyone who is in the construction trade or is an architect?

My current co-workers are extremely talented people and I would love to invest in their future movies and continue to be in a creative part of the business. 3) I want to buy a plot of land in Joshua Tree, CA (which is an international mecca for rock climbing) and with a friend who is an architect , create an amazing vacation rental property for visitors that come in for music festivals, family vacations, climbing trips, and the sort.

I just am not sure the proper approach.Do I look for a general contractor to get this taken care of or do I first need to find an architect? 

Have you ever used a virtual architect like on upwork to save money on drawings when investing in a property?

Many contractors will say that they can not provide a final price until they have drawings from an Architect, which for the scope of this project, you may need anyway in order to obtain the building permit; however, don't let them write you off too quickly since you cant provide drawings.

Any Draftsman and/or Architect referrals would be appreciated.

If your building from Scratch and it is a 50 unit project or more get an experienced multifamily architect like  Humphreys out of Dallas. if your building a smaller project you could go to several new apartment projects in your area pose as a potential renter and get their floor plan layouts then use the ones you think will fit the building you have or are building. 

PS - I know you dont know this but I am an architect.

This also had an allowance to add a second water line ($12K) and a third electrical meter ($5K), both of which might or might not end up being needed.Plus $6-8K for architect fees, $6K for structural engineering fees, and whatever the permits would end up costing ($8-10K I'm guessing?).

find out if zoning will permit what you want to do.Get a architect who has done this work in the city you want to do the work.