I definitely intend to be as fair and honest a person I can be inside and outside the real estate field, knowing these practices help me as much as they help others.

What are the legal steps to start building a spec home?

I know that on the residential side the process is pretty structured, but how does it work on the commercial step by step before you actually sign a purchase and sale agreement, that is you are expressing your interest to purchase and documenting what you need from the seller but before you make any non-retractable commitment?

In the event that you hire a broker it is industry standard practice for leasing commissions to be baked into the lease rate and usually amortized over the term of the lease and often times with a standard cost to capital added annually. 

@Sarah Lewis's practice is pretty good, because having an attorney send an onboarding letter tells us about anything that might be anticipated to go wrong so we can budget that into the transaction.

Note: that RUBS are common practice in some markets while other markets not so much. in not RUBS friendly market usually owners include/ add them to the rent. 

I've read a lot regarding the BRRRR strategy however putting theory into practice is where I am failing, especially given my current market environment, where $100k would likely only serve as a down-payment.What it sounds like you are getting at is to use a HELOC for the "Buy" and "Rehab" to avoid initially being overly leveraged ?

If you want to step it up one more, get one that connects wireless, if you have a wireless connection there, and you can monitor and control them from anywhere.

See if the county where you are looking has their upcoming auction properties online, find out everything you can about the ones that interest you, and see if you can buy a property outright with cash off the courthouse steps.

Start, as much as possible with things that work at 1 property or 100 properties so you're not having to completely change your practices as you go through growth phases.