You didn't mention having other money available.

I think by waiting to last minute to put things together you miss items and year end tax planning becomes problematic.

I have a hard money lender established to cover 80% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab, so my capital partners would be covering:20% of the purchase priceRange of $30,000-$50,000 cost of capital25% of the renovation budget (to kickstart the project while waiting for reimbursements)$25,000 contingency padAny tips would be great, and if you happen to be interested yourself I can send you more details.

A coworker mentioned they learned how to invest in real estate using the Bigger Pockets website so I decided to check it out to see what it was all about.

Several options, just don't wait.

To wait 3 months before acting is crazy!

Not to mention it will create generational wealth for your family if you keep scaling up with leverage over a 10 year period or so.

My contractor has gotten impatient waiting for him and has started taking matters into his own hands (he did the jack hammering of the floors which my plumber said had "complications" and would "take forever to get through"). 

With expiration, there is a maximum CAP for the area so new license applications would be subject to a wait list.

What I'm trying to say is that going up to 1.5-2 hours outside of even the biggest cities, there are pockets of affordable towns/cities with at least positive cash flow (although its never been harder to find than right now, I've been waiting for 3 years for the market to make sense before buying again).