I would initially travel to the area for a couple weeks to meet and assemble a dependable team.

.), then look at the initial pref almost last.

The initial cost can be high, but no maintenance or water costs afterward.Good luck with your project! 

My initial thought is to do a HELOC loan and pull out enough to do a flip and then rinse and repeat with the profit from that.

The method consists of marketing/publicizing the guru to create demand for the initial “free seminar”, where a pitch is made for a low priced $99 - $199 weekend workshop.  

(only after the initial adjuster has been there) After comparing notes with dozens and dozens of owners during Florence I was one of the few that got insurance coverage for the actual repair costs and was "almost" solvent.

Generally, since we set our initial break even at 65%, our future buildings only require a 35% occupancy to break even. 

Stop turning it on me and actually answer what I asked in the initial post about how to professionally turn them down now.

The house needed more work than I initially thought—especially when we discovered the entire plumbing system had to be replaced from top to bottom.

Why not just write the initial $50k offer in the name of your company and avoid the wholesale aspect of it altogether?