This would allow money to be allocated to hire a "highly qualified" person to do the job in the event something happened to one of us.

Blaine,Re the loans, you should research what type of reno loan you qualify for before you keep placing offers. *** You may want to JV with someone who has money on your first deal so you can strike quickly.

Anyways, your credit score can qualify you for an FHA loan and be able to put down as little as 3.5% down payment toward a house!

A short-term hold can make it difficult to argue that you did have the intent to hold, but if you could demonstrate that you did in fact have the intent to hold for rental or investment purposes but that you got an offer out of the blue that you could not say no to you would qualify for 1031 Exchange treatment. 

The majority won't qualify for traditional financing, hoping that funding won't be too difficult to secure if the deal is good enough.

You can convert the new investment property into a primary residence in the future, but it has to be an investment property first (for the first 2 years according to one 1031 qualified intermediary I talked to)

We have cash and lines of credit along with private money and are looking to help people add homeownership to their lives by helping them qualify and at the same time supply them the homes to live in.  

You will likely qualify since you're serving.

The underwriter bases your fee off of how much you qualify for, your credit score and history."  

You'll have to talk to a lender to know how qualified you are personally, but you'd probably be surprised what you qualify for.