Since her home was flooded due to an interal plumbing issue and the insurance company is paying to remodel the existing old (1920s) and dilapidated structure (could tell by looking at some of the 2x4 studs revealed in the partial internal demolition), I decided to find out if my mother can use the money should would receive from the insurance company in the form of a check, put that towards the remodel, and in addition secure a construction-to-permanent loan in order to fund the complete transformation of her 1 bed 1 bath 1,200 sqft home into a 2-story duplex that she can rent out, airbnb, etc.

what forms do you have your contractor sign before starting a flip? 

Not sure if it is incorrect but it worked for me.

For example for the person who wants to manage each and every property themselves then buying whatever is close or let's say within a 45 minute drive or less form their primary residence and others perfer to use property managers etc.

For me, its not the swinging a hammer, working long hours after work, and sleeping on a mattress on dusty plywood that was going to hold me back.

I formed an LLC with a business partner.

So for me I don't want to ink a lease ASAP with first qualified.In addition, first qualified may not mean soonest to move in. 

A more specific example is if a private investor had 135K in the deal for me to obtain the property, and I made a monthly payment to that investor for 12 months with the intent to cash out refi and pay the remainder of the 135k plus reasonable ROI... does this seem typical or is it all based on investor objective?

On my property itself, my interest rate was so low that the tax returns at the end of the year and only getting 25%ish of it back (my tax bracket) was not extremely interesting; it was a no-brainer for me to contribute extra cash toward the note and aim for getting the HELOC.

She works very hard for me and I'm happy with her.