I do home renovations, rehabs, and restorations for a living and looking to start investing in flipping for myself instead of other people.

The only way to get the first entitlement back is to pay off the 1st loan, but that is just one time (it is called One time Restoration).

If so, tenants need to pay this portion.The second thing I would do is to advise the tenant that they violated the contract and ensure they understand that the pool needs to be removed when they vacate and the lawn needs to be restored (sod, not just a handful of grass seed strewn about) I would attempt to collect additional security deposit to cover expenses in case they don't do it.I agree that this is probably a sign they expect to be there for a while.

Hi @Bernie Neyer - the only issues I've had with granite is the need for on-going sealing or restoration. 

If you are currently in a VA loan, I would recommend doing an interest rate reduction loan into a conventional to restore your entitlement.

You do get a one time restoration were you get to zero out of your VA so it does not count against you.

Without too much fluff i'll cut to the chase, as someone who does not have a "team" ready to deploy for the various services needed to restore a home, how do I begin constructing said team?

@Darrick LoweGo buy everything at the ReStore owned/operated by Habitat for Humanity.

There are folks here who specialize in fire restorations and will probably have more ideas.

We recently sold a rental and have some cash- ($60K) we are bidding on a partially  restored farmhouse at auction.