I had an agent calling me last July practically begging to buy a house in a premium area from a client who really had to sell by the end of summer.

Great strategy here for someone just embarking on their journey.I have seen Tim Puffer 's house and it is awesome and will cash flow hugely once he rents out both halves and until then, he will live practically rent free allowing him to save or put his money to other uses.

Bring a general contractor with you to the property and let them teach you how to identify problems and opportunities for improvement to bring the property to its full value.Go down to Home Depot and other individual wholesale materials stores and get a list of prices for everything you might use on this flip and every future flip.Go to the professionals desk at Home Depot and ask about discounts for bulk items purchased.It takes practice and a lot of trial and error at first to perfect the techniques to estimate costs.

So anyway... just be careful out there.. having dealt with regulators its not fun by any means and they troll these sites  IE my nasty gram from the state of NV>

Plus having an emergency fund is a good practice for when you will be required to have reserves for all of your future real estate rental (if that is the direction you go to).Good luck with everything,Igor

In regards to lending/licensing requirements that you mentioned, what sorts of limitations/regulations will I be dealing with?

I thought that I had my lender in place, but I just found out that he will not give a loan less than $50,000, and he says that is standard practice.  

With this, you can skip setting up an LLC, plus the annual contribution limit is much higher.Of course, it also comes with its own set of rules and regulations.

Are there any particular systems or organizational practices that you recommend?

I am flexible and willing to do what is fair and common practice.