I'm incredibly knowledgeable on  styles of homes to the history of the home, I am fluent in English,Portuguese,Spanish, and I dabble a bit in Italian.

We plan to either hold as a rental or sell to buy a primary + investment property.Questions:1) Would I need to have the title in my personal name so that I can refinance it based on our household W-2s and credit history?

And that means not just ability to do that kind of work, not just a proven history of doing such, but doing such for investors.

@John Smith two thing would concern my accepting you as a tenant. 1, lack of verifiable rental history and 2, the felony.

It worked well, rates dropped, properties appreciated nicely & the rest is history.

My system verifies their identity, address history, sex offender registry, criminal background, and a complete credit history.

You really should look into the history of 1930s and 40s before the onslaught of World War II to understand why programs like this literally saved America from becoming Nazi Germany or Soviet Union. 

I am telling clients to go ahead and send me the lease and the rent history.

With comprehensive applications -- including pulled reports from TransUnion and nationwide criminal background checks + credit checks + eviction history -- the right platform should make it as seamless as possible for you if you're managing on your own. 

What credit score, history, etc did you use?