The prominent venture capitalist, Paul Graham, wrote an great essay on the topic of startups doing things that don't scale - http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

Can you please recommend good landscapers or architect/interior designers in Austin/Houston/San Antonio/Dallas (central Texas area)?

You’d need a good architect to get this through SF’s arcane planning and bldg depts, but it can be done.

@Bronagh Gaffney I can't speak to the guru courses directly, but if you want an example of a prominent personality who seems to have no compunction about screwing people HARD, take a look at Clayton Morris, former weekend host of Fox & Friends - the morning news/commentary show on Fox News.He had a prominent position on a national TV show and always had a very likeable personality on TV and parlayed both to launch Morris Invest - a turnkey investing company.  

Specific things like;- Did you hire an architect and develop the plans or out the gate used your GC's architect?

You need an architect and a team of engineers for something like that.

They will most likely want some form of the following docs:- Existing Building Plans that are drawn and stamped by a licensed architect- A full survey- Condo Docs that are written by an attorney- Some sort of notification that is sent to the tenants and neighbors informing them that you intend to do a condo conversionHope that helps!

You can also look up local house designers and architects, last would be Internet sites.

This option will allow you to take your time to really architect your plan that is in line with your long term goals and short term needs. 

A prominent real estate investor in California related a story to me yesterday that nearly knocked me off my chair.