House building and construction materials are more expensive right now in general because of COVID and all the demand for the materials right now. 

They depend on the types of investors you plan to raise capital from - people you know vs advertising to the public , which will depict if investors need to be accredited or not.

If you delead, and maintain the standard, you will be in the clear.Here's the law (emphasis added by me):460.100: Duty of Owner(s) of Residential Premises (B) Whenever any residential premises containing dangerous levels of lead in paint, plaster or other accessible structural material undergoes a change of ownership and as a result a child younger than six years old will become or will continue to be a resident therein, the new owner shall have 90 days after becoming the owner to obtain a Letter of Full Compliance or a Letter of Interim Control, except that if a child younger than six years old who is lead poisoned resides therein, the owner shall not be eligible for interim control, unless the Director grants a waiver pursuant to 105 CMR 460.100(A)(3).

I have yet to come across any type of back end material, specifically.

@Tom Matousek the numbers in NC will probably be better than what you'll see up here in 9.99 out of 10 cases, other considerations for investing in this area are the laws governing rentals (NJ is bad but NYC might be the worst in the country) Age of property (our buildings and homes are traditionally a lot older than yours which could equal more cost for you as the owner) cost of labor and materials (yup, were more expensive here too) Acquisition cost (which could easily be 4x what you'd pay for a comparable building in your neck of the woods. 

I will be putting in the cash and he will only charge for the cost of material and labor, and completely exclude the profit he makes on his typical renovation jobs.

It is mainly based off price per square foot and quality/materials. 

Some of these lenders advertise FICO below 600 and 5% down, but I guess I can still offer it and they can either take my financing or I can get cashed out immediately. 

I recently passed my real estate exam in Virginia and asking for any suggestions on books or any material that would help with becoming a successful agent.

That's primarily an investment question.You should weigh the IRR of holding the property 5 years, 10 years, etc vs selling, taking a haircut on your equity via selling expenses / potential taxes, and reinvesting into something that has a (hopefully) higher....materially higher...IRR to compensate for the haircut.If this is a good long-term investment, capital gains can become largely irrelevant through well thought-out income and estate tax planning.  1031 exchanges, inheritance, etc.