I want to be prepared when I start investing, which will be very very soon.

@Miles Thompson Honestly we have never prepared a business plan for any of our purchases, and we own over 220 units!

Basically, if you come to them more prepared they will take you more seriously.

Perhaps once you go through an agency you can make some notes on the process to ensure you are well prepared and can do it yourself if it ever happens again.

So between now and May I will be learning all I can about the parts of this venture I am less familiar with, choosing properties to analyze and buy, figuring out financing, insurance, taxes, and learning anything else I don't know that I don't know. 

It's not 100% completed....Do you intend to fly there, rent a car and venture into the city to put it in yourself so you get paid?

Ask your closing attorney if this will work: have the closing attorney prepare two deeds as part of the closing package, the first will be recorded with your buddy's name, and the second (recorded literally after the first) will contain a deed with you and your buddy's name on it.

Just because you buy a property for the cap rate value doesn't mean you'll hit the market cap rate.Just be prepared to walk away from a deal when the broker or seller says that the value of the property is net operating income  divided by cap rate, and you try to explain to them that you have to hit your ROI, but they won't budge.Moving forward I will tell the seller or broker that I care more about ROI then cap rates.

I'm going to have some 1031 funds here shortly and would like begin researching the area to be prepared. 

If you want flexibility and are willing to put in a little bit of time to learn how to invest in passive syndications, then maybe the Lazy 1031 will work for you.The retirement decision is one that only you can make - but taking steps now to set yourself up to retire in a few years is prudent because you can always change your mind and keep working, you can't change your mind and go back in time to prepare yourself financially for retirement!