RodneyI do a lot of HML to fellow investors that have sat down with me with a business plan (sometimes on a napkin) & the capability to do the work.

From RealPage 10-K page 14, they say "The principal competitive factors in our industry include total cost of ownership, level of integration with property management systems, ease of implementation, product functionality and scope, performance, security, scalability and reliability of service, brand and reputation, sales and marketing capabilities and financial resources of the provider.

When we were getting our start we talked to several VPs of commercial lending, and having actual numbers when presenting our business plan to them was helpful in showing them that we had done our due diligence and were capable of conducting proper analysis.

A rising tide raises all ships.

Hope this helps.I've been doing a lot of research on this the past year, and this is what I've found (I could be wrong of course):Material prices aren't too much different around the country if you shop around for suppliers (there are differences in areas where shipping is more difficult and costly), and labor prices are surprisingly consistent (though there is a range of about 25-35%) if you ignore the high priced areas.Obviously, there will be regional differences in both labor and materials (especially in places where climate, soil and natural conditions impact building codes), but if you ignore places like NY, NJ, California, etc, you'll find that prices generally fall within 25-50%.I see you're in NJ, so you can probably throw the prices I mention out the window, but for a surprisingly large % of the country (especially between the coasts), prices will be pretty consistent within a 25-35% range.All that said, this is a topic I'm very interested in, and would love other data points, as I could be wrong

He was already very rich from investing before he was capable to do that.I personally see the expected returns of the two investments comparable.

Make sure they have a good track record and you have the capability to follow through on their advice.

Let them see that I am more than capable of buying their property.

Even the start up tech companies all packed up and shipped out in the late 90's; Mindbranch (used to work there), Tripod.It had it's boom days back in industrial revolution when factories needed fast moving rivers to create power and wash away waste.

If I were the OP I would jump ship by now!