Up until now I never thought about taking this ability, to see and eventually realize long term profits, and use to it to my advantage by investing in RE to secure my retirement years.

More luck than skill for sure, but I like to think I recognized the head wind causing my decision to sell and take the profit.

It’s so hard to find others in this niche that do some variation of the “build a house, move into it for 2 of the next 5 years, while you build the next house, move in, sell the previous house for profit, and repeat strategy”.

Maybe you could self manage a 5-unit and reap the extra profit, but what about a 100-unit?  

The $750K profit was greater than what she saved in 40 years.My dad on the other hand was the total opposite.

You can use that 55k to do a down payment on a large property or split the profits for payments on 2 smaller properties.  

I think the idea behind it is that you would be one of the owners of the property, thus any depreciation on profits, appreciation on the property, principal paydown etc., would be a little different. 

Then after a year or two, sell it for a profit?

If so you cannot profit by charging any labor to yourself.

If GC does most of the labor, would it be fair for him to put in $60K, I put in $100K but then we split profits since he's doing about $40K worth of work?