He is currently building a Duplex in Mary Esther and I know he usually goes around buying lots in mixed use neighborhoods then builds new homes that sell ASAP since they are so nice. 

People are so nice in this forum.

. #2 The inspection is going to uncover the issues anyways and you will pay for it. #3 Renovating is the best time to fix these things because it is likely the walls will be open so that the repairs are much easier. 

Very important to uncover these things prior to entering into a purchase agreement.

With every deal you do, there is a chance that you will uncover more issues than you underwrote for.

It’s a good point and I should ask why am I being charged for an uncovered lanai. 

Over time I've come up with an internal barometer scale for tenants:Great tenants: pay rent early every time, virtually no service calls and great flexibility when there is a service call, keep the house neat and clean all the time, have great communication, keep me in the loop on anything that matters/might matter to me (neighborhood, things that appear to be deteriorating on the house, etc), stay more than 1 year, leave the place so nice turnover effort & cost is virtually nothing.Good tenants: pay rent on time, keep the house reasonably presentable, minimal service calls, stay for at least a year, turnover cost and time is not excessive - usually just cleaning, replacing a couple of blinds, etc.Satisfactory tenants: pay rent on time but sometimes needs prompting, house is sloppy and full of too much furniture but not damaging anything, occasional BS service calls, occasional stupid complaints, not ideal turnover but not ridiculous damages.

Over the past 25 years we have uncovered some massive disasters that we fortunately were then able to cancel the contract on during due diligence.The best guy in the U.S. for doing a Phase I is Mike Renz with Renz Environmental in Ohio -- he goes nationwide.

I maintain there are two KEY skills you need to begin developing to be successful as a real estate investor:Analyzing investment opportunities and recognizing what makes a deal good or notTalking to sellers to uncover their true needs and thereby solve their problemsNote that both of these skills demand ongoing practical application.

I just uncovered a local opportunity that I'd like to run by you.