The internet makes the world very small.As far as buying out of state, one challenge I did not see any other replies mention is your occupancy. 

As mentioned it depends on the state as in florida you are responsible for 12 months or 1% of value whichever is less.

If you're interested in them let me know.Thanks for the mention @Andrew Freed!

You are right, when the inspector mentioned the possibility or prior water damage is when you should of had that basement inspected by a contractor/professional and not listen to your agent.Gregg is right, the sellers were aware of some of the damage which is why they gave you a 5K credit. 

You didn't mention where you are operating, but depending on average home prices, I think you'll be ok.For instance if we're talkin $500k homes, and if you will get a 2.5% commission, split that 50/50 with your Broker, you will end up with $6,250 per sale, right?

Leslie seemed completely unaware of any of this even though she mentioned she had a great relationship with Brian and has worked with him for years.

I will certainly start educating myself with what you mentioned and I'll absolutely take those steps you mentioned and apply those.

Reason I ask is because after buying the lot, the seller was also a builder and mentioned he could sell me his plans and connect me with his Architect.3.

You may want to make an introduction between your CPA to those 2 colleagues.The CPA can go over their services and pricing to your colleagues.I partner with many people on real estate deals - It never gets to a discussion on whether they do their own tax return or hire a professional.If a partner mentions he will provide capital - does he provide the capital on a timely manner.If a partner mentions he will find deals - does he find many deals and provide an analysisIf a partner mentions he will manage a property - does he manage the property well(find tenants, collect rent, communicate with contractors, etc)

It's basically built on top of WordPress core and they made it simple and easy to navigate.Where in wordpress, you have to get some plugins (some are also monthly paid) to achieve the same kind of functionality.As @Todd Heitner mentioned, SEO is not just about having a good hosting/platform and features, it's about utilizing the features in a way so your brand has visibility and people that come into your website gets proper value of their time spent.Here's a table comparison for you that I wrote earlier:Now whether you have a carrot or a wordpress site, for SEO, you will need:- Website Credibility (Personalisation)- On Page SEO (Keywords, Titles, Meta Tags, Description, Image ALT Tags & Optimization etc)- Monthly Content Publishing (Regular Blogs & Location Pages)- Monthly OFF Page SEO (Citations, BacklinksNow if you consider the cost, end of the day it's quite same for both the platforms.But if you are starting fresh, I see no point of having their 180$ plan, you can continue with 89$/month plan from carrot and assign someone in your team to put regular blog posts and update the location pages.