Eventually, I realized that if I kept waiting until tax time to organize my books, I would never escape the stress (and extra CPA fees).

Are most of those gurus just selling courses/cutting a fee on top of an agent?

There are freelancers that do work for engineers & architects who are already familiar with their work and can review and stamp for a fee as well.  

So, we require a nonrefundable Retainer Fee for 90 days of our time to find a rental property.

Sometimes you can find a large enough company that you can sub everything out to them and get paid on a commission or flat fee basis, or you can get the property platted and sell it that way.

If anything’s not up to code, you’ll need to fix it before they sign off.As for costs, you’ll have permit fees—those can range from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars.

If I could start finding off market deals myself I think it could work, usually the assignment fee from wholesalers is the difference between pulling all your money out and not.   

We are pet friendly and have some zeroscape backyards and have wording like "We are pet friendly with a fee, but please note although backyard is fenced there is no grass and certain areas contain crushed shell which could hurt your pets feet". 

I find condos/townhomes to be easier to manage out of state because the HOA handles a lot of the maintenance, just be aware of condo fees and find a place that is reasonable like $300-400/mo or less if you are lucky.

The lot is flat and level, so we only need a short gravel driveway.