In other words, to max out the sales price do you need to have solar panels, showers with the shower heads coming from the ceiling and from the wall, granite counters, engineered wood floors, etc.

HVAC journeyman certification at PG community college comes to mind or electrician, plumber, building maintenance engineer. its a 6k or so investment for the HVAC training (info below), but maybe there are scholarships to look into....

I was laid off last Wednesday from my Software Engineering role.

I'm a software engineer from Miami, FL but I am looking forward to start diving into some buy and hold properties and begin producing some passive income for my future.I also enjoy accounting and keeping an eye on my finances. 

First you hire an engineer to draw up some plans, then the county approves you for less units than the engineer planned for, then the city approves you for less units than the county approved you for, and then you can hire a contractor and start building.Meanwhile during that entire process, your attending meetings at the city/county where all your neighbors come to complain for various reasons why they don't want you to build there, further dragging out the process.

I am a mechanical engineer and she is in school to be a nurse practitioner.

Buy or inherit and hold all their lives while working the properties for income.I've seen teachers, firemen, software engineers and all sorts of people utilize both strategies successfully.

I am currently a 21 yr old senior civil engineering student who has accepted a full-time position in the commercial construction industry.

I work as a manufacturing engineer and my wife is a civil engineer working for the GA Dept. of Transportation.

The development office for the county said I would have to hire a structural engineer to plan it out.