A more sophisticated time-value-of-money approach is needed for a more thoughtful analysis of an investment and how improvements impact value over time.You can't really compare capitalization rates in different submarkets very easily either.

I hear from those attending that this has driven average returns on tax liens to 6-9%, but that's for financial institutions with scale that can hire cheap labor to visit every site (which is a must to ensure the property is in good shape), go to the local assessor's office and look up all the liens, hold onto the lien for several years, administer the ongoing payments and any foreclosure proceedings, and run pretty sophisticated spreadsheets that estimate whether you're going to get 6% or 8% return, based on economic forecasts, etc.

So he would be able to make ends meet even if we only had 1 rehab going.One of our motivations to make him a part owner rather then an employee is to avoide all the payroll and labor burden costs and headaches.

Payroll, bookkeeping, etc can mostly be done remotely.Here is a great list of questions to ask a potential accountant:http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/70447-questions-to-ask-a-cpaAlso check out the www.NAEA.org page in your search.

Again, these prices are very basic, and there is really no substitution for pulling a tape measure on each space and plugging your metrics into a more sophisticated estimation model.Please remember that these costs vary a greatly by region, and our company also receives excellent pricing because of its size.

The investors are more sophisticated and want the relationship one on one.

I refer to ATPP (accounting tax payroll partners) Google them and ask for maya.

It's not at all uncommon to form an LLC and have accredited &/or sophisticated investors invest in it.    

You receive a W-2 from an investment banking firm - no need for a company there, earned income.You receive a W-2 from the DJ business now and so you would not want to receive wages or earned income and deposit it into an LLC and report that as SE income and be subject to the SE taxes a second time on the same money and you would not want to deposit it into an S-corp and then be forced to pay yourself W-2 earnings and pay payroll taxes (same as SE tax) for a second time on the same money again.The only question left is the side gigs you do and I would put that on your Sched C income and buy yourself a bond insurance policy which is probably pretty cheap.Joe

The sophisticated investor thinks in relative terms about value he didn't capture and what his opportunity costs were.