Understand other expenses house flippers will incur (commissions, closing costs, staging, holding costs)4.

You get the experience of buying a property, staging a property, screening tenants, managing a property, and being a landlord (the lessons you'll learn here will be invaluable).

Why not buy a simple small home, preferably with an en suite and from there convert it into a simple 2 stage apartment.. you live in one half of the ‘house’ an the other pays your half.Both would need work I know but with the en suite all you would need is a cooking facility for the other section/apartment an another small toilet for yourself...

I am interested in wholesaling, I am at the very beginner stage.

We are in the very late stages of executing a lot split through the city. 

I am currently in the military for 17 years, have 2 elementary school aged kids and I have been dabbling in RE investing for over 15 years and still have a lot to learn, but have a 'this or that' question for you guys. 

I have a couple of concerns: late-stages of a cycle, (like what I think is being described here,) can last a long time...years. 

My brother and I are at the beginning stages of looking into potentially a FHA 203k loan for a long term investment property that my brother will live in for a while.

I'd avoid sophisticated/complicated and expensive structures at this stage, especially if the only reason you need a partner is because you're both undercapitalized. 

I am 85% completion on my first property (2 doors) and have two more in the permit stages.