I have a 9 to 5 job that I plan to keep but I'm thinking of real estate as an additional way to invest for retirement, kids college and lastly to increase cash flow. 

I thought that I had my lender in place, but I just found out that he will not give a loan less than $50,000, and he says that is standard practice.  

I am 59 years old and I have been in the construction business since I was 17 years old including those years I was in college,  Try to stay within an hour drive.  

Are there any particular systems or organizational practices that you recommend?

I am flexible and willing to do what is fair and common practice.

Going into it, it seems like you should be able to work from home and take care of a baby, but put to practice it is very hard.

Paid for college out of pocket, no home, no car loans and have been overseas building business since college.Now I am struggling with financing for several deals we are looking at because of lack of credit history and fact that business makes the money and it is not my personal income.

And I know it is not good practice to not account for property management in the expenses, but at the outset (early years of ownership for our first few properties) should I discount expenses based upon performing our own property management to add the 10% property management to our cashflow?

Practice with properties you aren't even interested in.

I recently heard an analyst say this about the Denver housing market: it has 10% more growth before it will catch up with other city's in the US with the same demographics (population, # of sports teams, # of colleges etc.)