It's tough being a successful agent, it really is, I don't know how people come into it with 0 background and make it, and most don't. 

2) Background: My business partner is in the real estate business from almost 20 years and really successful here in Germany, but I would assume that does not help with anything once we start new with a corp, does it?

Your lender is technically responsible for the selection of the HUD Consultant.

A bank or a private lender or a hard money lender will give you money for a trade-off of a high interest rate and collateral in the property, but most people are asking for someone to partner with them without giving any background as to what they (the asker) bring to the table in the deal.What skills do you have that can help an investor out and develop a relationship that could end up in some form of a partnership down the line?

As I have some background in collections, when she can across an inheritance, she asked me how she can deposit the money without creditors finding out because as soon as you opens a bank account, creditors seems to find out, and the money will be seized. 

I'm a tax accountant in Australia with a strong background in property investment here, so pretty knowledgeable of the general gist of property investment and given my current investment strategy and goals I've ended up looking towards the US for my next, hopefully, few investments.I'm looking for buy and hold investments with good rental returns on them on low cost of entry.The basics of my situation are that I'm a US citizen who has never lived/worked in the US, have a stable job with reliable income in Australian dollars (the exchange rate is brutal these days!)

A lot of people may disagree with me, and that's fine, we all have our methods, but I also come from a sales background with a lot of cold calling and cold emailing, so I've had a lot of practice at getting rejected and disarming prospects that want anything but to talk to you.As far as ways to get contact information, I use Propstream, which is great for getting property and owner information, comps, distressed situations, etc. and then you can skip trace them within Propstream to get the contact information.

If you are adding lights, that would technically need an electrical permit.Well, our types of permits follow the trades, mainly.

There are legal, technical and financial issues as well as architectural principles issue.

I have a background in construction, both residential as well as industrial- so I believe that I have a fair amount of experience to well evaluate a property's full potential and ARV.