The home has a foundation and we plan on restoring the structure to have it classified as a single family residence, and then to lend against it.

If you are planning on buying a turnkey property anyway, I suppose it could provide some insight into the locations they are working in and as I said above, if you did buy a property through them...the academy fee is refunded.Definitely don't take my word for it but it's helped me so far. 

After that I plan to quit my job and become a full time investor flipping properties.

However, if you need fast access to funds or have difficulty qualifying for a HELOC, a hard money loan could be a viable alternative, especially if you have a clear plan to refinance quickly.

I plan to save the rental income for reserves, screen tenants properly, buy in C+ to B class properties. 

The numbers and business plan more than adequately support the project numbers (can share privately). 

I would not focus so much on the returns, as I would on the experience of the sponsor and team, location of the property, and overall business plan. 

I use Follow Up Boss and just have each lead tagged differently with different action plans

And I realize this is not a new topic... but sometimes hearing it a different way helps.My advise to those planning on having more than one business venture in real estate is to set up a separate LLC from everything else just for rentals. 

I plan to get at least 3 quotes but I just thought this was a low ball estimate in today's cost.