The harsh truth is that you are not cut out for this business.

Many of us have been there but you may not be cut out for real estate.

I cut off PMs that constantly try to find ways to add revenues by what I call trickery; selling some 3rd party service that they have contracted to all their clients, recommending small fixes turn into large one's,etc, make it difficult to get 2nd opinions. 

And there's not a huge short cut - if you want a $500k income from real estate, you're going to have to invest $5M at a 10% return, or maybe you're really good at this and can get a 20% return on $2.5M of invested cash. 

There are a lot of investors that want to get started and don't have the money to buy a 20 unit, but want more than a SFR, so they buy a duplex to quad.I only know of a handful of quads in my market that got cut up into 4 condos.  

Let them build through hard work like teaming with reputable operator who may take a cut but own the project etc.Neal Bawa and associated companies are another bunch or lier’s who project rosy picture to sign up people but fial to deliver.Those two have made my experience with real estate very companies very negative.

We are trying to cut costs on the ones we are doing now, but still trying to keep the quality high. 

Cutting to the meat of the situation, I came across a property that looked like a fixer upper, typical investment grade property.

Hire a licensed and insured electrician there are codes that are in place to protect people and property it is a safety risk that you should not cut corners to save a few dollars on.

There are regulationsI could go on, but if you learn this much, and apply it appropriately, you will cut down your sorrows and risk considerably.And yes, there is much more.