We lost earnest money, appraisal fees, money spent on the architect, money spent on my attorney, and much worse, the loss of profit on this deal.  

In the interim year 1/2, I spent countless hours trying to track the contractor down to do the work.

I've never spent company dollar on something like this, I can tell the team likes my marketing so far I don't want to let them down, and I want to sell the last of our units.

For some reason I think I heard somewhere, a spouse can apply the hours spent on a STR towards the other spouse's income.

The amount of capital you have to raise to leverage yourself would be better off spent in the S&P 500 or employer matching 401k.

I just spent 30 minutes helping my plumber try and get funds from a job. 

However, this would increase my costs by about $4,000 a month (about 3K would be spent on skip tracing).I'm also exploring the idea of wholesaling in other states instead of in Northern Virginia and south part of Maryland.

Perhaps a hidden surveillance system to catch the culprit will be money better spent. 

Having spent the last few days scrolling through the forums looking for areas that fit my price point.

Might be something we can help with...I spent a career doing this.You just cannot build a house like you're describing for that $ SF.