Even though the building in question, was built in the year 1900, it is not considered a historic home, and it will need about 20K in renovation, including foundation work for the pier and beam below.

Think of marketing for motivated sellers as 2 different military strategies: 1) LASER GUIDED MISSILES - go after specific owners (e.g. absentee) with specific characteristics (e.g. % equity, area, home value, etc.).

You can walk the property and talk about what you see then watch and listen to the video at your leisure.I have a laser measurer that's often more useful when you're alone than a tape measure.Binoculars can be handy for looking at the roof from the ground, as long as you're not dealing with very flat roofs.

there might be plenty of other hazards on the job site that me as a building owner is responsible for …hanging wiring, maybe a beam that is just waiting to fall on somebodyAlso ..we all know we should hire licensed guys …but there are a lot of unlicensed trades who are skilled in what they do and price competitive …if I hire an unlicensed person as a contractor and he does damage to the building or his work caused somebody to get hurt…would my general liability insurance be the one to take from there ?

There are many more issues you can have with a wood frame on a peer and beam foundation.And as David pointed out if you want to sell as a rental. work your numbers out as a rental.

The city of Dallas is requiring we have an Engineer's seal on drawings done for removing a wall and replacing support with 2 columns and a beam. 

I have seen it in the past where steel beams are inserted through cut out on the side of the house.

I need to get out all those little pieces of plaster and insulation lying in between the beams.

The potential for poor quality work, overcharges or other unforeseen events lead me to do a lot of things myself (along with the classic justification to buying power tools -- "if I do it myself it pays for the table saw/nail gun/laser level/impact driver" -- signs of a power tool addict.)

Would the wood beams be rotted as well or could I just take out the drywall, have it cleaned out, and put new drywall up?