You can get a state specific lease from BiggerPockets or often your local realtors association has attorney written leases.

Another lender, on projects we weren’t associated with, apparently panicked and demanded immediate payment when a few of his loans matured.

We have tried Skype and Google Voice with varying degrees of success and dependability.

.), but I am thinking about getting an associate's degree in Construction Management Tech to gain expertise and knowledge in the field, and ideally find a W2 role to help me peek behind the curtain and gain some real world experience and additional networking. 

Since you're listening to the podcasts I think what you're talking about is REIA's which are Real Estate Investment Associations.

I have a basic understanding how brrrr works, my question to everyone is are the costs associated with refinancing really worth it if the amount of equity is not significant?

There is absolutely 0 curiosity on the reasoning for this, NAHB (National Association of Home Builders) has been warning of this for about a decade, as well as all of us in the building world, to which we were widely ignored, well here ya go. 

I find in my own deals that the hidden costs, especially those associated with time always come back to kick me in the face.

Most lenders aren't going to be much higher and once you associate costs, it won't be worth it. 

I don't want to be associated with companies or insurance companies I haven't vetted.Thank you!