I want to get a project/deal under my belt.

IF you lack the guts and courage to take action, with or without a mentor you will struggle.  2 - The best time to hire a mentor or a coach is with some experience under your belt.

We could lend on it but she would have to have experience renovating the home at least one home under her belt.

That's not for everyone though so of course all of the routes you've mentioned would have some application in RE but it seems like the people who truly do best in this game see the big picture and long term trends so perhaps Economics.Ultimately I think that a strong real estate investor has to have some level of proficiency in all of those fields but doesn't necessarily need to be black belt master in any single one of them if they are good at delegating and building the right team. 

That way you can get into a property with the banks money, build experience and hopefully a few successes under your belt before you start asking for investors. 

The hi efficiency units, with direct venting, are more expensive & we have had a couple of blowers fail.

Since I don't have a sloe season under my belt yet, I can only do some research and guess what my occupancy and revenue might be.I don't think I'd be terribly disappointed if it didn't work out and am trying to figure out that sweet spot of earning more money than I otherwise might without scaring them off.anyone else been in a similar situation?

I have a few flips under my belt and one rental but am trying to grow the rental portfolio by 10 units in the next few years.

Follow your heart but it wont hurt if you have Licensure under your belt to be eligible to receive referral/commission (legit).

@Eric Long - House Hacking is a great way to get started and some momentum under your belt.