You guys are all right, the running theme I have been seeing is that first put in your time and learn the trade before jumping head first into pure investing.

If I use private or hard money, what number do I put in for the INITIAL finance amortization period?  

If he wants to put in an application, let him.  

The electric company won't put in a new meter without the permits being pulled and the city saying it is safe.  

Standardizing everything sounds like less of a headache since I only have a standard of what I put in my properties.

In my area, Zillow home value estimates are not super accurate but the rental estimates are pretty good.Rentometer is nice you just put in the address and number of bedrooms and you get a range of rent for the area.  

It should be convenient and has a minimal distractions.  

Even if the seller accepted an offer of 135k, the bank would still need to approve it ... so, if you want to play that game and the ask price works for you, then tie the property up at 135k and wait for the bank to counter with what they would actually accept, which is likely closer to retail comps ... put in your offer expecting this to happen, and it may takes months before they get back to you and it could be at a crazy high price so don't stop your search in the meantime, at that point your offer will have expired so you could accept their price, continue to negotiate with the bank, or walk away. 

We then have 3 exit strategies:Flip to a retail buyer at ARV.Flip to a buy and hold buyer at a discount.Flip to a sister company that turns it into a buy and hold.The financing we put in place assumes we will hold it and is assumable for the buy and hold investor, while still providing a 10% cash on cash annual return after taxes.

You could put in as low as 1% in good areas.