Hi Jon, thanks for the welcome.The local economy here is pretty good and our housing market didn't crash as bad as other parts of the country.

I did include comps to show how I arrived at the ARV, plus a detailed breakdown of repairs, but I didn't think to include a breakdown of holding costs, staging costs, etc. on the buyer's side.

In my market the buyers come out in droves when the first warm weekend arrives.

That does not sound ready to crash to me, based on historical patterns for the yellow metal.

As I was arriving to the property the crew was leaving except one worker who was staying behind to put the final coat of clear on the floors.

Schiff is one bright dude (he predicted the real estate crash), and he doesn't paint a rosy picture of our economic future - unless the government drastically changes course from it's borrow/spending binge in the near future.

Still, should I worry about any zoning laws for running what's basically a lodging house/"Crash pad"???

Sometimes your 45 cents on the dollar home runs can get out of control real quick when you've gotta put new copper in every two weeks and deal with the junkies that think they've found a new crash pad.

I *think* that you can apply your losses towards future earnings as tax deductions... so you might be OK if you consider the $80K loss as a way to reduce your tax obligations over the next 5-10 years.You should research what you can do with that loss and/or speak with a CPA for the correct answer... but I think it is possible, I know someone still doing it with stock market losses incurred during the crash of 2000.

#1 - Your response about big company/small company practices rings sincere, though I don't think I'd arrive at the same conclusion.