Here's a suggestion: find an agent, tell him/her that you've identified a property already and would like 1% of the commission rebated towards your closing costs.

My struggle is identifying what the standard market price/whats the process for renovating to separate the units and how zoning applies/where do you find the properties moreso the apps say multi-family and number of rooms but are missing pictures or details. 

As well as adding 10% to you rehab cost you need to add extra time to completion if you are doing the work yourself.If you can get to very high fidelity of cost estimation you can more accurately identify if a contractor is your best option.

Something I learned...you must be laser focused and identify what type of property you want1.

We've identified a stabilized property and are now sorting out deal structure and determining how to finance and hold title. 

LLC is a great option to identify percentages for sharing profits.

If they say it doesn't work for them we move to the next prospect without identifying the property. 

But to add a little more color here, because I'll be investing out of state, and with it being my first investment, I am willing to give up some cash flow for a "safer" neighborhood/deal - I'm attempting to simply "get on base" as opposed to "hit a home run" in my first at bat.I have identified Denver as a market I'm interested in based on long-term macro economic factors, so while I recognize that it's already pretty expensive, my time-horizon is 20-30 years, which should still yield good investments. 

It looks like the trust owns 25% and either the father or the son owns the other 75% -and most of the time the documents will identify -addresses or Social Security number so you know if it’s the father or the son.

Identify the goal and the path might become more clear.