He donates his time (this is where you have to clearly specify what is expected).

donate to charity and take a tax deduction, works best if you owned more than 1 year.

You can capture it if you want to move but not if you want to sell and buy the home down the street.My biggest buy was at $2MM, still had the 6% for the seller to split on both agents in the sales agreement, I haven't done a $5MM deal yet ;-)  Oh, I'm not OCD over everything, just this one that has a million of my dollars, year of my life, 40 pounds of my body, and enough blood to donate several pints to the Red Cross (Bonfils for you locals). 

It is important to note that you have soldier property, have triggered your income tax consequences, but are permitted to defer your capital gain taxes over the term of the note as principal payments are made.Contributing the property into a Charitable Remainder Trust would allow you to sell your current relinquished property and avoid all income tax consequences, provide you with a current income tax deduction for the donation, provide you with cash flow over your lifetime, and provide free future donation to the charities of your choice.  

I want to recoup my costs and donate the profits to a charity.

God forbid you ever did one I donate too.By the way,  who pays your Salary?  

Not only did they spend weeks cold calling for donations (To no success).

No other family member would help so we ended up trashing or donating all her stuff.

The fun of doing something I'm good at and enjoy.The fun of success.The fun of financial security.The great joy of being able to donate money to my favorite causes i.e. kids and animals.

I'm not so much looking for profit as to create a vision and that vision will be supported also by recreational camping, art workshops and retreats as well as non profit donations for the AIR program.Many tax lien investors here do their own foreclosures which will court and all fees comes out to less than $300. per parcel.