My first post :) I'm new to REI and followed the shiny into buying ($390) and attending a goofy 3-day workshop (currently sitting in Day 2 in Danvers, MA) on tax lien buying by TAX LIEN WEALTH BUILDERS, previously known as UNITED TAX LIENS, founded by Jay Drexel, who also built MarketPlacePro.It's been almost useless, a giant patronizing waste of time (as @John Underwood and @Ned Carey has driven home - don't pay for education you could obtain more quickly and thoroughly on the googs or through networking), but an interesting exercise in appreciating their polished presentations, sales strategies, and trying to understand what these people's actual business model is by reading between the lines of all the shiny idealized and exaggerated examples of rapid wealth generation.

Allowing fees to pile up would have exaggerated the value decline from mortgage market crash.  

What I mean is you can do things like move to be close to work, so you don't have to drive (and thus avoid massive $$$ in expenses every year) or 7 roommates (maybe an exaggeration, maybe not!).

The time and calls it takes are over exaggerated, if you take care of your properties.  

There was this awkward pause.... then I heard her light and take a big, deep drag off her cigarette with an over exaggerated exhale like she was thoroughly bugged.

The residents expressed the horrible school system in Missouri added to the crime problems....sorry if I exaggerate but I saw shady people on the streets near gas stations with no real business and the houses for the most part look rundown... 

That can certainly exaggerate the issue for lesser experienced loan investors.  

I've never met an agent who shied away from exaggerating to make a sale happen and collect his cut. 

The need for an LLC is grossly exaggerated on BiggerPockets and other websites.

My thought is do the initial inspection to build the overall scope, build a budget based off the approved scope, put together an exaggerated timeline, then manage the renovations to completion for 5-10%?