An office location, your goals, some type of corporation or LLC, financing figured out, and picking a primary Team that is willing to help you on top of learning.  

Well, the only good news I can bring to this thread is that real estate probably has the lowest barrier to entry of any form of investing that'll get you "1%er" like tax breaks. 1031 exchanges.Capital gains exclusion on selling a primary residence that has appreciated in value.Mortgage credit certificates.

But I would hope to build a partnership and eventually have him buy into a equal share position where profits could be split 50/50.Thoughts anyone???

And both say primary residence or second home only, no investment properties. 

If your informal sampling comes back positive then I would do the full testing and the house would likely get put on the meth house list.

I feel that I am not in a position to start investing because my personal finances are a wreck and I need to first learn self control in my finances.

I'm not sure if you can refi a VA loan though if your not living in it because you would have to sign the VA document again that states you intended to make this your primary residence, which is not true since you have renters in it.

The primary Team members are Attornies, real estate Agents, CPA'ms (or accountants), Inspectors, General Contractors, and Handeymen.  

@Carmen Falcone the point of the FHA loan is to help people who would otherwise not qualify for a loan be able to purchase a primary residence.

Some elements that will make a condo non-warrantable are:* High investor ratio* Insufficient reserves/Bad financials* Litigation* Buying as investment vs primary/2ndWhen the condo is deemed non-warrantable for the specific transaction, then the only financing option left is a non-warrantable condo portfolio loan.Hope this helps.