The question comes with various customized details but it's the same answer over-n-over again, to such a degree that answer-burn becomes a very real thing. 

Quote from @Cassidy Burns: Welcome to BP! 

Saika  While a permit is a hassle, what happens if there was a fire, it burned down, someone got killed and the fire department was not even aware the unpermitted structure existed.

Burned my *** too many times lol.I am here to learn new strategies and take part in discussion regarding landlording and home improvement.   

I just wanted to say thank you to @Tyler Jahnke and all that have contributed to his excellent documenting of his journey with Morris Invest and his Indiana property.MY EXPERIENCE SO FAR (For those with time to burn)I made a reservation online with Morris Invest on June 30th of 2016 and received a phone call appointment for October 6th - an almost 3 month wait.On that day I got a call from a 727 area code which turned out to be a gentleman named Dave Koehn who said he was an associate of Clayton's.

The key is to understand the capital stack, who is in line in front of you and what are their terms.The people who are getting burned may have known there was debt in front of them, but did they know it was short term or variable - did they know all the details to make a good judgment on the investment.If a property had 20 year fixed debt at 70% would you take that over 3 year debt on a variable rate at 50%? 

Due to amortization schedules front loading; you could be burning money if you go light on your down payment and use a 30 year. 

Recently Clint made a post about the land market has been tough & how he felt burn out from teaching things that don’t work like they used to.

In the end someone who thought my tenant fully owned the property decided to burn it down for him.

When you say "open to investing anywhere that makes financial sense" you just invite everyone to pitch, especially when you also say you have 400k to burn so be careful.