I'm currently working as an engineer and am looking to eventually reaching FI.

He's a land planner and I'm an engineer (licensed in NC) and we are also looking for land deals to develop in the area. 

Originally posted by @Emma Chen:We will of course get our own inspector and possibly a structural engineer to check it out, but what we want to know is taking on a property with these sort of issues considered a bit risky for the cash flow that we're expecting to generate?

Any mentors who are near Jersey City, New York City, heck even Long Island, and that are interested in sharing knowledge in exchange for reduced cost IT support (I am a server engineer by trade) or photography (my fiancé is one) I'd love to chat.

As mentioned, any lender is going to require experience of the folks doing the work, that property is their collateral, so how would they know that a music teacher or IT engineer can hang doors that close, windows that open, cabinets that won't fall off the wall or that a ceiling won't fall in?

As a mom I wanted him to go to school and get a degree as an engineer, project manager, or something, but he hates school.

You can have a list with a million people, no deal, no check.Reverse engineer it.

I have BS in engineering from a state school...my student loan debt is egregious.  

You will also want to be on top of all of your inspections and have final C of O before you let the buyer do their engineer inspection.

I'm going to school for mechanical engineering (I plan on working in the oil and gas industry).