If you want to invest, study markets, make connections, and keep a regular job or get a regular job to bring in income.

Look into the details of your property management contract and make sure they have great referrals if you go that route.

It will be important for me to have an attorney draw up an LLC because I plan to have some future arbitrage properties and I will need established business credit.Not looking to go the LegalZoom route and figured some of my fellow BP posters would have a couple of good attorney referrals to share!

Within IT though I would also recommend, on a lifestyle and time basis, that once you have a certain number of years under your belt as a technician, say 4 or 5 years, I would shift gears from the technician route and use that background to get onto the project management path. 

From a tax standpoint, a Qualified Venture might be the best route if both of you are going to be on the title.

Many will lend on the home despite it's condition, and you'd likely have more favorable terms than going the hard money route - especially if you're planning to planning to claim this as a primary residence and move-in. 

Bonus if it's a duplex or triplex, but you can do this with a regular old house.

We're inclined to go the "replace everything" route (because if we're going to spend $100K to do "half" of the job, it seems to make more sense to spend more money now/once to do everything).I know next to nothing about elevators; what should I know? 

Dean,I have lenders that I deal with on a regular basis that may be able to help. 

I guess I did not factor or consider that appreciation would be pretty important factor for refi If I went this route.