I'm am venturing into Real Estate by buying and flipping home and keeping some and renting out.

You have a lot of control on a deal that you can hit the fund/not fund button.

One is an joint venture on an investment property; the other is online business venture.My journey into real estate has been unorthodox - instead of focusing on acquiring properties, given my distance and lack of funds, I've focused on connecting with the right people and seeing what type of opportunities would come of it.

Husband of the owner, who is not on title and has never had an interest in the property other than living there, is fighting the 2 daughters for control of the property. 

Get ahold of a Dave Ramsey book on how to control your spending as well. 

I want to start my investment venture in real state.

I would venture a guess that a slight cooling of the market or change in real estate (natural market cycle) would effect the higher priced homes first.  

Recently, I have made several offers and I have had sellers electing to walk away from the deal, if I would not agree to use "their" title company.Obviously,  I am missing something here; but, what is clear to me, 'one who controls the keys, controls the castle'.

I was actually surprised to see with your two properties that you hit at least the 5 unit threshold for rent control.  

I chose to venture down the path of a real estate agent because it requires less money to start-up... and it becomes very difficult to qualify for conventional loans without a solid employment or credit history.