The inspector might have been a third party inspector hired by the municipality, if the municipality does not have their own qualified inspector on staff.

I was uneducated and wasn't executing against a plan.

The attorney/title company is the intermediary between the parties once the contract is executed.

I understand that I could have handled this whole situation better and will certainly learn from this but from my perspective, I communicated what would be done, have executed on my promise that the renovations would be done prior to the date the tenants stated they would be moving back into the property by and will now be offering a concession for the time they had "unlivable" space. 

It is a good deal and may push me over the edge into full time RE investing, i just need to make sure it is executed correctly.

Quitclaim deeds are commonly used in family transfers where no title search is undertaken... such as the instant scenario.Sure, they raise eyebrows when we find them in the chain of title, but they are just as effective at transferring title as warranty deeds when executed by the appropriate party(ies).

The solution might only take 2 minutes to fix a problem, but what about the time the office staff took to receive the complaint, then enter it in the system, then communicate with maintenance staff and dispatch them, then for that person to drive out there, fix it, report back, then for the office staff to enter the result.

So basically I should spend the first year learning the ins and outs, making sure that my first 1-2 deals are perfectly executed, then start ramping up my pace of acquisitions in years 2-3?

This can be quite complex and you are in essence getting taxed on a tax deferred account (defeating the purpose).As Dmitriy pointed out, having your partner use their IRA to fund the deal as a note and deed of trust will avoid this taxation to his/her IRA so all you will need is loan docs drafted and executed.

This operator would be knowledgeable in the legal process, day to day operations, hiring of staff, etc...