If you want to learn you need find someone like myself who will sit with you one-on-one, ask you about what you seriously want to do, what you can do and then give you all the tools you need e.g. a business plan, business models and philosophies that help to keep you on a straight path when when you have business problems.You will never get that around a bunch of Big Mouth Wannabes and real estate brokers who are so ignorant and desperate for business they need to go to club meetings to pick on newbies because they don't have the brains to build a company with investors like myself.

Pro-tip: A great tool to find current data of your nearest metro area is Redfin.comTo conclude, take a look at the hundred most emerging markets in Real Estate.

At that price you get a personal loan for the gap in funds, fix essentials and mortgage with delayed financing. 

If I want to convert this sizeable space into 1 or 2 apartments, is there a tool or rule-of-thumb to use to estimate the costs of this project?

There is also a tool here on BP to find HML in your area.

I guess what I am really wondering is if you are you essentially trading potential equity in a home for being able to avoid a seasoning period with the delayed financing route?

Do you have any tools or strategies to help you do that? 

This is a great forum with very knowledgeable members that will help to guide you in the right direction.The site has quite a few tools that can be helpful for new members.

I'll have a bit more money that I can then use to invest in other properties; hence being able to utilize all the tools BP pro has to offer.

I'm going to do some research on the what if or wayfinder tools, but the answer seems to be "time".