@Nicholas Nakamura can you make a trip out there in person? 

@Kyle Cross, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think maybe what you're getting at is potentially pitching to your parents that you would like to take a shot at personally managing the units to gain experience and some form of compensation.

Little did I know it would take decades to ripen :)3. bought a foreclosure sale .. traded the house for the 3 acres the person who owned the house. 

My expertise is deal analysis, buy and hole strategy (creative financing) and personal finance. 

Does anyone know stats on this or have personal experience in this region?

What I take some issue with is the techniques that guru's use to up sell and so on .. and they do nothing to qualify if the person paying them if the program does not work they are now into debt to the eyeballs and so on but then again who are we to say at some point.. think of  Hewlet and Packard they went into 15k worth of debt to start HP in late 40s or early 50s and that was a ton of money then :)

I am looking at a 5 unit building that I want to do a condo conversion on. 4 units would be vacant 1 has a rent controlled tenant in there who does not want to move. I would owner occupy it so I don't know if I have a...

It's important to understand that a person can sue another person, but that doesn't constitute a judgment.

However, I also think that a lot of people who set out to pursue this strategy miss the fact that it is literally a lifetime commitment to deferring taxes, which by definition means not realizing the gains.

Hire a company/person that is solely a QI like @Dave Foster they do it every day and will keep you legal and on track.