My plan was to work with someone who has done similar homes in the area, if possible, who might come in with pre-approved or mostly ready-to-go building plans; no sense re-inventing the wheel. 

To begin, it is important to educate yourself on various strategies, establish a strong network, set clear goals, conduct thorough market research, start with small investments, and create a financial plan.

At the very most you're saying his plan works if you start with another plan that includes financing an investment property and then switch to his plan and use the cashflow to aggressively pay off the property.  

Talking to Planning, Building & Safety and Public Works at the city. 

It has been suggested to call these people 1hr prior to the showing time to verify they still plan to come.

The best documentation in the world won't help you strategically plan how to use your 1031 opportunity if the QI isn't responsive to in a timely manner.Demonstrated experience and nationwide footprint I would toss out as the two most important criteria. 

Is there anything I can do to ideally get them to not list the house and sell to me, I’m assuming there might not be many options, especially since the sister and I had agreed on a price that was below market value given I was planning to invest money to remodel the home and was planning to honor his wishes of not having the home knocked down to make a townhome or new home.

What was your Plan?

As a newbie it would be wise to have a game plan in place before you start your journey.

There are pros and cons to each, but the way I see it, if you have a set strategy you plan on implementing over and over again, then you need to find a direct lender who specializes in that investing strategy.