@Hunter McCook , just FYI, Augusta has a pretty active investor group, it's called AORE (Art of Real Estate Investing.)

I knew that property was selling for around $250 per sq ft, in the area and found out that a previous Mayor (Martin Chavez) had signed in a re-zoning initiative to increase population density in the area and put in a rapid transit system (ART).

If you have valuable art, jewelry, or a car, you can get cash refinance to get the cash out.

I do real estate because I have a passion for housing and the art of architecture.

Proximity to the mountains, 300 days of sun, great beer, legal weed, bars, restaurants, arts.

I've done it but only when i'm trying to squeeze more money out of a third party while at the same time, being comfortable with it coming back to me as REO (That usually implies there is a senior lien/junior lien relationship of some sort).Some of it is art, some science, some smoke and mirror but its all in the effort to "true up" what you realistically expect to take as a loss when its all said and done, if you end up taking a loss.

Valuation is part science and part art.

But this is all an educated guess.... mortgage underwriters really don't understand the art world, heck neither do I, and I'm married to an artist. 

It's all in the art of negotiation.

There was a national group (not the FEA) that specialized in simultaneous swaps which is more of an archaic art form of the 1031.