WBS and Out of State Rehab

[Russell Gronsky]

Hopefully this is the right topic area for my question. If not, please let me know where I should ask the following: I've come across some real eye sores of buildings during my travels around the Unites States. Many can be bought for 10k - 20k a piece. They are in some C and maybe D class neighborhoods and the margins are not there for flipping. However, the rent, after a rehab, is around 1k a month so you can cash flow these things....if you rehab for the right price and don't go broke in the process. As an out of state investor, that is yet another layer of risk. However, I had a teacher a long time ago who was using a WBS (work breakdown structure) as a tool to ensure that a company in India was building his web site with the exact functionality he wanted. So the other day I thought, is it possible to keep a contractor on financial target with a rehab, using a WBS? You can also incentivize positively and negatively based on work performance but what I'm really curious about is, has anyone successfully used a WBS to ensure a rehab is done right and within budget? Bonus points if you did this as an out of state investment. Anyone?