Most designers work on high dollar and high budget projects that are created to be unique which is a terrible fit for flipping anything but very high dollar homes.

You're just paying with pre-tax dollars rather than after tax dollars.Further, there are costs involved with buying and HUGE costs involved with selling.Don't fall for the BS the real estate industry puts out. 

There's a world of opportunity out there, learn as much as you can, get involved with discussions and post up any questions you want answered.

Whether a Roth conversion makes sense to any one investor is a complex matter involving so many factors such as age, income, value being converted, cost of conversion, projected future tax bracket, etc.The cost of the the conversion would be determined based the appraised value of a property, less the outstanding debt. 

@Garrett Wilson, if you were "buying directly from the seller", how on earth did the wholesaler get involved?

Do I just work with zoning for that or would the design/build people get involved this early in the process? 

The cabinets won't fit your kitchen, but usually they're just sitting loose on the floor, so you can look at the details a little and see how a real official cabinetmaker or finish carpenter did it 40 years ago

If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.As for horror stories you'll end up involved in those no matter where you invest.

The one that was a pain was the one that a real estate agent was involved

Congrats on getting this deal Harsh.First things first, you should be talking to your attorney and your CPA for legal and tax advise on how to best structure your deal according to what you agree with your partners.That being said, the structure of a deal can take many different shapes and forms and it will vary according to the type of involvement the partners will have in the deal.Are you in charge of putting together the deal, securing debt, managing the operations?