I advise people to hold property forever unless they can move the money into another investment that produces a greater return or moves them closer to their goals.

For almost all investors, buying a property off of the MLS at market price in a good location to hold for 10-20 years is the best option. 

Do we write a check and have the Title company hold it until work is complete?

Sure, if you are a house flipper you have a buy box, but formulas and calculators are the one thing holding back new investors right now because they spend all of their time plugging in numbers from the internet into a program on the internet instead of getting reps in the field and learning what the different basements smell like between 200k and 300k.

In your example this would not be considered sole-proprietor, the LLC is just a holding entity.

For a rental, you need to put 20% down.If the banks will lend you $1.4M, then you could buy a place this year, wait at least a year and then buy another one for you to move into and repeat, but the banks will ask why you are moving. 

Actually, @Richard Licon, the American Association of Private Lenders does have a certification program they hold at their annual convention.

People think if they can afford the down payment that they can afford the deal but even in deals where the purchase is 90k or less you will still need to be liquid 25k because you figure:15k to close5k to front contractor to get started5k (6 months holding costs)Insurance and Misc costs: 2kSo you see the life cycle can cost 25k+ even on a small deal. 

Or you can refinance and hold it if you love it as a rental.Also, I'm 41, married with two kids and just bought another live in flip/BRRRR.

@Braden Heard start farming & growing your personal network to find deals that you can start out wholesaling, then flipping, then buy & hold as rentals to build wealth.Per this NY Times article, the average American knows around 600 people.https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/science/the-average-american-knows-how-many-people.html#:~:text=The%20average%20American%20knows%20about,do%20you%20know%20named%20Kevin%3FPer the US Census Bureau, the average American moves 11.7 time in their life, which based upon an approximate lifespan of 84 years, works out to be about every 7 years.https://www.census.gov/topics/population/migration/guidance/calculating-migration-expectancy.html#:~:text=Using%202007%20ACS%20data%2C%20it,one%20move%20per%20single%20yearSo, if the average American knows 600 people and they each move about every 7 years, that means that the average American knows around 85 people that move in any given year.How many of those moves do you want to be involved in?