Wanting to go into flipping in this stage - to build capital - and then work my way into rentals. 

Are we in the early, middle, or late stage of an expansionary cycle?

Now you have what it looks like with & without staging.

So yes the reward may be larger for someone taking on excessive risk, but from my own experience I have gained my wealth by taking things slow, putting 25% DP that I bought for 180k on a duplex that cash flows well and is worth 70k more then I paid for it and the mortgage left is only 125k.  

I always bring in a woman consultant to stage a house and recommend finishes, features, and fixtures. 

We had to show our house to potential buyers, with no middle man, no help in negotiating.It took 18 months because we are on a Humanitarian Reassignment: my husband's mother was  diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and we PCSd to take care of her in her last months. 

I almost did one in NC and this is how it was structures, I was purchasing the house for 52,000, 30,000 rehab and an arv of 130,000 Lender wanted 15% 5 points and the contractor had to be paid in 3 stages of payments, I had to pay 10,000 out of my pocket but received it back upon the second draw and pay the closing costs which came to about 7,000 ,6 to 12 months financing and I had to make approx 1,000 pymts during rehab to cover the total costs , contractor said he would be done in a month and the sale sign would be up during rehab to create interest,so hard money can be risky but if it sold in six months for arv it would have been a nice chunk a change,I'm glad I let it pass so I can watch it,I might be bummed too,lol

So that makes sense.What the book preaches is that there are two stages to investing.

I still work full time at my job while attending school full time, so any excess cash flow after paying all other bills will go to improvements on the home. ($2,200) What are some other things that I should look into before proceeding further with an offer on the house?

Knowing almost zero about your deal I would say you're probably looking at giving away in excess of 60% of the profits to the LPs.