At the moment I'm VERY BLESSED to have both a full-time AND a part-time job that both pay me well and give me time for "personal" activities at work.

I have recently finished college and moved out of my apartment to start my new job as an architect. 

I'm not to the point of leaving my day job yet, but am curious about refinancing when I get to that point. 

I just want to post about our property manager he is doing a great job out of the gate. 

Well last night at I was talking to a guy at my job who has been wanting to retire basically and he was telling me a story about how he's not sure when he will because of issues he has with his properties and how he has pulled money out of his retirement fund to buy properties, in which he has a total of 10. 

I’m a married father of three (all under 5 yrs) with a good job and a spouse who likes the idea of financial freedom but is risk averse when it comes to investing.  

Below are my thoughts to your questions-Seeking funding (brokers or creative) most likely FHAI'm sure there are many creative ways to get funding, but if you have a full time W2 job, FHA or conventional loan is probably the easiest way to go. 

Even if you decide developing it is not something you want to do the value will only increase as housing damnd increases because of the new jobs.2) - Do not go to a contract and start talking to them.

2 - For a non-flipper with no connections or bulk jobs, how much should I look to pay to renovate a 1000 square foot 3 BR apartment in that "flip" style that is all over Zillow (floors, bathrooms, paint, etc)?

If you're trying to replace income to quit your job, you need cashflow.