It's not uncommon for one to spend thousands of dollars in consulting with a US CPA and counterpart in your home country before a legal and tax entity structure is even formed. 

International travelers to our region tend to spend much more than their domestic counterparts.

I've used my leave off from my day job to work full time on my business while my counterparts take vacations and cruises.

If a contractor wants to quote w/ materials, we compare the quote against our pricing on the same manifest to see where it lays.Like Michael, we typically source specific items (light fixtures, vanities, fixtures, appliances, etc) ourselves regardless of the approach we are taking.I can also not stress enough standardising paint colours.

Flippers like you have earned my respect by adding real values to homes, unlike your counter part in China, who just uses a large amount of money to push up the home price in an entire area and then sell.

Under federal law, individuals seeking housing may not be discriminated against based on their race, color, religion, sex, ancestral origin, familial status or disability. 2 Rhode Island’s fair housing laws are more comprehensive than their federal counterparts.

And, while there is regulation addressing what is to be contained in the Letter, there is no standardised government form - at least not that we've encountered yet.

Sometimes you can get away with selling the sizzle not the steak but eventually you will need that steak, or those seasoned counterparts will call your bluff leaving you feeling foolish.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm right, I think one of the issues in your perspective might be that you're treating property investing as a substitute for work or other standardised income streams - I think it's more realistic to think of it as either a savings scenario, where you try to get the best return rates possible at the minimum possible risk, or alternatively, as supplementary income to an existing stream.Living off your investments completely normally means you either have a very large and lucrative portfolio (which, indeed, takes years to build), or that you've somehow turned it into a full time business, such as being a realtor, buyers agent, fixer/flipper, builder/developer etc - but that's a whole different yarn that should be correctly titled "running a realty related business" as opposed to "investing in real estate".Again, if any of my assumptions are wrong, please correct me.

Plus, I never have to show the pickett fences to Ken & Barbie on the weekends like my counter parts are doing to just make a living!