I sincerely hope you continue to reevaluate the necessity of fighting fire with gasoline.

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-harvey/first-they-fought-storm-now-they-fight-their-landlord-n799206If you live in an area prone to natural disaster's maybe the lease should spell out a course of action.

Did your parents fight over money?

Perhaps special legislation was passed because, if possible, it would alleviate FEMA's burden immensely if a large percentage of people are able to have a means of finding a new home themselves as opposed to overwhelming the limited FEMA capabilities. 

To add pain to the situation, the surety company -- in the event that he has contractor's bond -- will surely fight for it since what happened is not in the contractor's control.

Most nyc multi family purchasers are cash buyers, so i am losing the fight already but want to see if there is some light at the end of the tunnel with agents in nyc that could help me find me my next deal.

One must consider price point (if the exit value is under $100k, then the 70% rule needs to be more like 65% or better) and if the exit is say $500k and in a hot market, then rehab flippers could still make money today (key word today) at 80% rule.The price point, the market conditions, the level of rehab, the rehab extent, the individual investors capabilities, the financing, and many other factors all come into play.

Still not feeling capable of closing foreclosure deals on my own or getting the money I invested into this course back as I was promised.

Duplexes get extremely expensive and you will be fighting many buyers to get one.

This is very important as you will now have someone (free of charge) fighting for you.