We never made a single deal, since all we wanted to do mainly was retail shopping centers and large scale multi-family.

On scale you can not take the time to deal with things like that it just isn't feasible for us.

I plan to start small with 2-4 family deals and scale that to large apartment buildings. 

I'm starting out with buying & holding small multifamily properties to build wealth, but I would like to expand to small scale development, focusing on re-investing in walkable downtowns.My wife and I just purchased our first property, a two-family that we're going to live in and rent out the second unit.

The big players do exactly this all the time, the larger scale simply involves a bigger team.

@John Berg I am reading up on pop tops, a rookie in the concept, wondering if you are projecting the architectural and engineering work into the $100/SF or do you calculate those costs on a diff per/SF scale and add to the $100 construction costs? 

One off builders don't usually have a pipeline process and will tend to move slower than a production builder, but you kind of have to live with it until you can scale.6) Don't build the fanciest house in the neighborhood.  

I want to know do I have to flip a few homes to build enough capital to purchase buy and hold homes independently (without a bank) or how should I scale my business plan or portfolio to maximize my income, and utilize my time effienciently ?

You have to make comparison on same time scale.  

A single fourplex will put you at the upper end of the rate scale as opposed to having 5 or 6 fourplexes under management.