So is it equally illegal when the large landlords drop rental prices in a building as vacancy increases and the market softens?

To save those costs, you might want to stick to some year build and older, for example, if you cannot do inspections on the properties that you are buying due to off-market deals or something else that is hindering you (all sellers I buy from do not want anyone in the home till we close).

So I contacted the tax collectors office and was told there was a legal loophole and that since the building had been owned by a non-profit for part of the year it would receive tax exempt status for the full year.

What nice though with that is you build equity quicker.So just adding my experiences with the commercial side, from an owners point of view.Good luck!

The problem is that it take far more effort to LIVE that dream that it is to wake up from that Dream.I teach Real Estate Investing on the side and I will tell you 95% of the students are sitting in class dreaming or pretending that they are improving their lives just by attending the class.In the end, they don't really study.I give a Spreadsheet exam at the end of a 12 week / 1 class per week session on building a 10 Year Pro-Forma business plan for your Real Estate and I will tell you 95% fail out right.Being in class is more about dreaming than it is about putting in the effort to learn the skills to be an Investor.

They'll wait years sometimes for the right down-market cycle to build.

These methods include: Detailed Engineering Cost ApproachDetailed Engineering Cost Estimate ApproachSurvey or Letter ApproachResidual Estimation ApproachSampling or Modeling ApproachExperience or “Rule of Thumb” ApproachIt’s important to understand the differences between the approaches including which one best fits your property and the reliability of each approach.DETAILED ENGINEERING COST APPROACHThis approach compiles the costs from construction and accounting reports to build a report.

Right now there're some agents trying to sell me the new build homes, but I've run the number, with the current interest rate it's really hard to get a breakeven cashflow in 5 years. 

I would first separate out the original purchase price between building and land.

I have done several flips from out of state, in the same markets as i was trying to build a team.