A good ol fashion phone call or house visit would probably solve your problem. 

I’m hoping to find more success in Phoenix, but as you stated, the old fashioned way may be my best bet.

I would test one as MTR and maybe one as STR, depending on your market.For those of us who know Sacramento, there's actually quite a lot of information to go on in here.

Depends on the operating agreement and docs you signed.

You may also have to pay a broker to rent it, when usually the tenants cover that during peak rental season (May-July for 9/1 leases).Good thing is once it's rented you should almost never have vacancy if you're mindful of re-listing it in a timely fashion.

I've worked with tenants in a similar fashion and ended up feeling ok about it but it was short term, over the course of a few months and they paid me something the entire time. 

If the borrower themselves need weeks / months to get plans and permits for construction, and does not provide all docs in a timely fashion, we can only go as fast as the borrower provides what we need. 2.

Numbers always look good on paper but between holding costs when acquiring and renovating property, closing costs on can also add up.I am not saying it cannot be done, as I did it with about 75 loans in a very similar fashion (except I was buying NPL's and got them reperforming).

Best place to find this type of funding is in a group where people lend in this fashion which is essentially unsecured /100% financingyou will not find many to do this except those that are brainwashed by gurus who think it's a great idea

If positive, it's generally treated like income or offsets the liability for that property to $0; this is highly dependent on the circumstances.