Use wholesaling and flipping opportunities to get your foot in the door and earn some money you can use to pay off your loan.  

I am looking to meet like minded hungry people willing to help me get my foot in the door or maybe just learn from some mistakes you have done in your past.

In Brooklyn, it'll cost about $200 per square foot for the spec build (give or take 10% as a margin of error) which is usually the going rate.

Commercial is more complicated because there are square footage allocations and other influencing factors involved.As with most items in the tax code, you can try and deduct anything,(which I neither do or suggest) but the question is - can you substnatiate it?

My wife works for a property management company (300+ unit experience) and my dad has his foot in commercial real estate ownership/management.

Unless you can find something to get an FHA loan on like a 4 unit but the PMI is high.The average cost per sq foot for multifamily is approaching $400 per sq foot.The average cost for a large house is around $325, see the arbitrage coming.CA has a new law that allows any SFR to convert to a multifamily, legally.So if you found a 4 bed sfr you can convert to a 2bed, and 2 bed duplex. 

If the moving tenant is going to be dinged and foot the bill...

I just finished a 1400 square foot home in Radnor. 32k for kitchen alone, 8k for demo, 12k for new hvac systems, 12k for new electric, 14k for new mainline piping, 6k for other plumbing, 8k flooring, roofing, Sheetrock, painting, trim, bathroom, landscaping...

They changed out the tops to granite to match the kitchen but other than that it still have ugly vynal, ugly 80s small white square tile in the tub.

If you have the time, and are handy, and want to save on money I would rent the belt sander from home depot, the one that uses the round sand paper ( not the flat square one).