Hi @Eric Baum Thanks for the post - I think I´m in a pretty similar situation in that I´ve been in business a while and have gotten a few deals under my belt through personal cash and straight equity JVs with other firms & individuals. 

The comparison is between buying two older $60,000 rust belt houses which rent for $1,000 per month, vs buying one newer sun belt $120,000 house which rents for $1,000 and holding for 10 years.

Once that is mastered, and you have a few deals under your belt, you will be ready to go to the next level.

Then I ended up using a sand belt (stupidly) to try sanding everything down and starting from scratch but it cut into the wood on many parts.

Running your rental / flip / BRRRR portfolio will keep you more than busy enough anyway.If you still want to be a RE agent after all is said and done, it would be better to start out getting your license after getting a deal or two under your belt too.

Maybe I am misunderstanding your statement about FHA loans.I have my first owner occupied duplex under my belt for about 9 months now - it was financed with an FHA loan.

I spent the entire day driving around the Columbus (inside the 270 belt) with an agent and have to agree with @Christian Carson and was able to see it first hand.  

I guess my main qualm is that I feel like I'd be wasting an amazing opportunity (FHA loan) on a house that's 40K with 20K of rehab, when I could use that same loan for a 150k house and max out the rehab portion, which could then set me up for success by already having a good flip under my belt AND capital to move forward with.

The crawl space expansion can be a project saved for the future once you have added equity and time under your belt in the property. 

I see this on BP all the time.. folks trying to launch looking for private lenders and wanting to pay bank rates.. which is simply a big joke. you did the right thing investors can be life long you treat them well and you will have all the cash you need. never look at it like your spoiled them.. thank them for giving you the opportunity to make money without putting any thing up.. plus the listing etc.. this is how I started my career and to this day even with oodles of deals under my belt my investors still make the most .. keep it that way.. until you can do a few on your own.. then you get 100%  Again the biggest stumbling block for those starting is to just not understand how private Money REALLY works.. not this fantasy that there are all these private lenders that are going to be lining up to lend money for less than HML rates.. on top of that getting paid to fly a fighter jet how good is that..