., are you expecting your tenant to stay in the unit while the renovations are happening, or are you putting them up in a hotel?

They typically expect 30-40% down and 10-15% in reserves depending on the risk factors of the property.  

It would be great to grow this to over seven figures before I turn 65 in about 17 years.

Some offices have fees and others may pay expenses to cover you and expect you to produce.

Figure out where you want to be, where your place in the real estate world is going to be. 

Expecting to make 65K my first year, and looking to see what I can do to increase my net worth.

I don't know if they got caught up in the bidding process or they have a fix strategy that I couldn't figure out. 

Even if you wanted to save that expense, you should "pay" yourself that amount by allowing for it as part of your expenses.The problem is: a bad Property Manager will cost about the same dollars as a good one - but your expectation of positive investment returns could be reliant on finding/being a "good one"!

Figure out how much work you're willing to take on.  

You have to figure out what you can put down and how much money you will qualify for in terms of a loan, analyze the market to see what you can get and where the area is heading, and then look for the right opportunity that will cash flow and maybe even let you house hack.