Appreciation is just one aspect, albeit an important one.

@Jeremy Brown  good points.. but real estate is so regional.. like in your region  Sacramento Placer county etc.. the agent upon opening escrow would have gotten a preliminary title report back from teh title company within 3 to 5 days.. once that is received it would clearly state at the bottom of the report if anyone other than the title owner had an interest they would need to proof themselves up and sign. so in other parts of the country ( and I find this particularly frustrating) especially attorney closing states.. they will not pull title until way deep into the transactions. ( reason they have to pay an abstractor up front to pull title ) and if the deal fails they don't want to be on the hook for the abstractor fee so you don't find out that you have an issue with title many times very close to closing date and this leads to massive frustrations on the buyers side.. ( at least it has for me in these instances. )But your correct the listing agent probably should have or did know that the seller was married and should have gone down those thought process's.. usually your in the home during the listing signup but i know now with docusign this may not be the case as much as it used to be.. as RE is moving away from much of the belly to belly aspects we enjoyed in the olden days 

I have co-owned a property in Maui, while my partners did the management aspect.

So, with that in mind, let's start with your question, and the answer that can be found within it...like @Jon Reed mentioned above.Since you mentioned you already knew everything that needs to be done, please define what that "everything" list looks like.

There is nothing that prohibits the helper from being more proficient at every aspect of a project than the owner builder. 

Most of the time, the 'upscale' aspect of that kind of design is simply not there, it becomes sort of kitschy/cheapish.                                                                                                                           

@Benjamin Greene You have gotten some sound advice regarding the lending aspect of things on here already, but as a whole I think it is a very good strategy for both you and your significant to house hack separate owner occupied properties.

Define "high income earner." 

I love it - this is a pivotal moment in every new investor's journey; defining what you want in great detail.

@Duncan BanksFirst thing you should do is define your strategy/ model for investing.