My niece spent 12k learning to apply make up and be a make up artist.  

.: I'm taking a break from buying and my previous approach of analyzing deals in inexpensive markets, looking at hundreds of properties on Zillow and running the numbers, which I spent hours each on each day and became really burned out.

We have spent the last several years reading (rich dad poor dad, total money makeover, etc.), listening to bigger pockets and other podcasts, and learning about real estate.

So you wouldn’t get any depreciation on your new purchase assuming you only spent the $450k.

Only about $3k was spent to make upgrades and improvements to the property.

Its money well spent land development is high risk high reward.. depending on Jurisdiction. 

Of course, what they paid isn’t going to take into account the money they have spent on renovations or remodeling, which can be substantial.  

Convince yourself that there's a better than average chance that you will lose, and if you can live with the time, energy and money spent if you do. 

And I should say that I have property in Japan, and have spent nearly 15 years there.

I recently moved from France, where I spent 8 years running my own house renovation business.