I concur, and have the benefit of living in this exciting market place!  

And having a license would benefit me in that case, cause if i sandwich, any transactions done represent myself and not the seller but I'm still protected if people get sue happy. 

My wife and I have no real estate experience but we are looking to gain knowledge about the industry.

It's not a problem with the concept of building a 2-4 unit property, the issue is all about the large capitalized expense costs vs. benefits.

So best in that situation might be placing the capital with those parties and see how they source and successfully turn around properties for equity gains.  

A 1031 exchange would be used to sell an existing property you own and buy one (or more) replacement properties without paying the capital gains tax on your sale.  

If you haven't done so definitely check out the Bigger Pockets Podcast there is a lot to learn and a wealth of knowledge to be gained from there. 

Since you say you & your husband are just getting started you will find this site to have a ton of material you can gain knowledge from in many different formats like webinars, podcasts, blogs, forums, articles, and books.

In building my portfolio, I want to continually think of ways to gain traction and accelerate towards my financial goals.

My first wholesale deal I played myself short on potentially gaining more profit because I got a great deal from a motivated seller but didn't know the market that well and listed it WAY below what I should of listed it for.