You may easily look up the person on the NMLS site with their licensing number and find out if they are authorized to conduct business. 

Our current focus is working on 1-4 unit fix and flips, but eventually work towards being able to refinance properties and keep and cash flow them.My question is  tailored on the the way I should structure our relationship for the legal and tax base purposes.Should I secure the deals under my business and pay my partner out of my business operating account?

I really think the ball was dropped on the prospecting and operations side of the business on my end.

The biggest players keep the wheels turning by deal volume and keeping people busy.

The interesting thing is that an LLC is normally meant to hold 'business assets'.However, a house-hack is both a personal property and a business asset.Therefore, the question then is, is there any protection being given to you.The next is, if the LLC is jointly owned, is there a partnership return due, which is normally due March 15 of every year.

I saw wholesaling as a more scalable model for my business so I decided to transition to it since I was already heavily marketing direct to seller.

I do a lot of business Nationwide and in states like IN, OH, FL, GA & LA you can cash flow right out of the gate.

Be able to answer questions regarding average price points, rental rates, new developments, local policy change, population density, job/business allocation or relocation, etc.

My business partner and I are new investors and small multifamily certainly could peak our interest. 

It really depends on what you prefer, some prefer crypto currency (not me), I prefer private lending / mortgage notes and structured it in a way where there is no ordinary income taxation on it, so it is treated as a qualified dividends.You can invest in anything / any type of business, it really is based on what YOU want to invest in.