Often the venue will be filled with people standing room only yet only 10-12 will actually bid & some on many.

@Nick AskewI own LTRs in Cincinnati and STRs elsewhere but I think Cincinnati has enough events to attract STR/MTR guests.I have lived on both KY and Ohio sides of Cincinnati and we have about 9- 10 concert venues within maybe 4 -6 square miles.

So my Wife and I have been throwing the idea around of selling our house and buying this 30 acres of farmland that has no improvements on it and build a Wedding/Event Venue on it with a 250-300 person capacity barn style and a 3-5 acre pond with a 10,000 sq ft island to do outdoor weddings on. 7 Acres of road frontage is currently zoned B1 for Business the rest is residential agriculture if i recall correctly none of it hinders us from doing what we are looking to do from what the county has said. 1 option was to build a home as well on it the and and do the barn to do weddings and the 2nd option was to just build the event venue and no home.

Purchase price: $360,000 Cash invested: $125,000 Rustic Barn wedding venue in west Michigan.

My dad started in this bizz in CA in 1962,,, as a family RE bizz we bought thousands of these lots over the years at tax sales and other venues.. then sold them for 50 down 50 a month.. 8 to 18% interest.Same scenario you see with Texas 20 acre parcels for 2k down 40k and in Montana you could buy 20S the same way before the movie stars found Montana...My pop bought thousands of these over the years. it was not uncommon to buy lots for less than 50 bucks at the tax sales. the 50 down payment we had all our money back.. then we would sell the paper to note buyers in Beverly hills.. for 50% discounts..

My 7yr old son does Futsal (indoor soccer) and his coach (who is a former professional futsal player) is looking for his own venue.

@David Bartlett  fractionalized DT's are very common in CA.. and in some other venues and in many states they are not legal..

Ive run a couple handfuls of homes through the various calculators to get a feel, but there's no substitute for experience.  1) the city center edge, homes on the way from the airport and close to all the action (conferences, games, religious venues, etc)   These are the closest, about 35 minutes from me and not far from where I am at work regularly.  

If you think you have a good case, everything documented, etc you might consider a small claims action if you have that venue in your state. 

Ever think your mentor may not know squat, just BSing his way through the wheeler dealer venue and reaping benefits of your relationship?