The lender has agreed to foot the cost of this second appraisal and has agreed to hold the agreed upon interest rate at no cost to me.

Yea, my advice was based on him doing it and footing all the expenses.  

So far I've been working on getting my real estate license to somewhat dip my foot into the "actual" real estate game and not just property management.

I just took a quick glance at a few for you and see that prices seems to be in the $10-12/SF/Yr (per square foot per year) range.

Plus not to mention the added maintenance issues you have with 10x the foot traffic.

I think I understand the reasons for wanting to start such a group..when I was brand new to real estate it was very intimidating networking with seasoned investors so I found my footing in a group of people that were on my level.  

@Michael Dee makes the same point, you can house hack for a while to build funding, if not get your foot in the door, if I gather it right it sounds like you want to rehab?

@Jerry Padilla Ok I'm going to talk to some lenders and see what I can do to get my foot in the door.

The biggest thing that will relieve your stress is setting an aggressive schedule for getting these updated.. 

We ended up offering on Frank's P&S contract.You are on the right foot re how you calced the offer price!