Not being concerned about cash flow is a extremely knave approach to real estate investing.

Yes, that's the classical approach.

Something my father taught me about new construction is the logical design of their build to serve a specific purpose, such as buy/hold apartments. 

Ask around at your local REIA; I'm sure someone there would know for sure.Neither the bank nor the attorney will discuss the loan with anyone other than the homeowner and anyone the homeowner designates. 

If you approach them properly, they'd probably be willing to share info with you to get you going.....

What I don't like about this approach is the management company would give the job to it's favored contractor, you lose control, cost is inflated, and collectively you all have no control over the cost.

A real estate professional is a distinct designation from the IRS and there are certain rules/thresholds to do before you can call yourself a real estate professional for IRS purposes.You may want to factor in all of the above to see what the cost of cost seg will be and what your decreased tax liability will be for 2017 and what your refund will be from carrying back the NOL to 2016/2015.

There is no extensive marketing campaign or advertising needed:  broker I bought through a couple of years ago has approached me to sell to an interested buyer she has identified and she is proposing 6%.   

Having said that, I'm trying to approach this using @David Greene's model of finding 2BR units with 1000+ sq ft in an effort to buy low, convert into a 3BR, then ultimately cash out refinance.

You can approach owners anytime.