It's self dealing and a form of basis shifting and most definitely a no no.

It was a stick shift, and was actually a challenge to learn to drive it.  

I am a new investor myself with a whopping 1 deal under my belt, so I'm not sure I am the best advice, but I would say the absolute first step is to have a real in depth conversation with you bride to know what's comfortable.From a monetary perspective, I would buy a cheap home in a good area that needs many repairs, add your sweat equity, and trade up your home in 2 years (or re-finance and use that to start earlier).

I’d be interested in hearing others thoughts and perspectives if anyone has any.Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Generational shifts in values on where to live - a focus on being in the best "locations", urban-centric, close to everything, close to downtown.

(That's one amateur's perspective anyway - I could be 100% wrong.) 

Bradley,Kudos to you for asking for resources where you can educate yourself.Once you've read what others have recommended and you're ready and willing to do those things to be successful that you won't learn in books, shift your resource focus from books to YouTube. 

I'm curious to hear different perspectives on the matter.

For my corporate job I use SAP which would be overkill for a much simpler business like Real Estate at least from the accounting perspective.2) Is there a BP post on process flows (infographic) for deal aquisitions that way I can wrap my head around whatever methods of deal aquisitions exist?

From the agent's perspective, we have to assume we'll be doing both jobs.