I'd do a majority of your learning through books or podcasts and network with people off BP before any meet-ups - unless you know someone and trust them.

I want to take a year to have relationships ready, raise my familiarity with the process, and learn what not to buy before I start making deals.Any major flaw to this in Albuquerques market?

Before people jump on me with 'if you do it, you've got to do it right' comments - sometimes you need to juggle your funds and do enough to make it safe and then deal with major replacements when you are getting ready to sell and when property values may have gone up 30%.

We buy the majority of the properties we generate from our marketing, but wholesale some too.

Your lender is confused because he's one of the overwhelming majority that goes an entire career without learning anything but how to finance single family homes for married couples intending to live there, which is the overwhelming majority of mortgages written.

Owner states house has no major issues currently (will be getting appraisal and inspection) only,cosmetic repairs may be needed.

Caution:Contracting for repair, maintenance, remodeling, or improvement by any person licensed under part I of chapter 475 (real estate agent) while acting as the owner’s agent pursuant to that license, where all work requiring a contractor is performed by a contractor who has a current, valid certificate or registration issued under this part to perform such work, and where the aggregate contract for labor, materials, and all other items is less than $5,000; however, this exemption does not apply: (a) If the maintenance, repair, remodeling, or improvement is a part of a larger or major operation, whether undertaken by the same or a different contractor, or in which a division of the operation is made in contracts of amounts less than $5,000 for the purpose of evading this part or otherwise.For the sake of your cousin's license, either make her a part owner (sharing the gross profit as her compensation) or get a GC on the job asap.Just a helpful hint to keep a fellow real estate agent out of jail. 

A bit ironic as I think most on here would agree that the majority of agents don't understand/participate in real estate investing.

However, most major cities will have one. 

The only "savings" is if you were coming from another private, untraded syndicate with high fees (which isn't that common for the majority of people on BP).