My goal is to get members to be active participants and make this group as practical and dynamic as possible.

@Tony Gunter  yes frustrating.. part of it I totally blame on the absolute rampant practice of the wholesale community there tying up MLS properties and flipping those like they were off market true wholesale deals.. the apprasiser are not dumb...

I'm just starting out so I'm trying to learn best practices.

In my view, this demonstrates that they take their obligations and due-diligence very seriously and that such good-business practices most likely extend to all corners of their operations.Don't forget people that these RECF firms essentially serve as de-facto custodians of your hard-earned investment and (in some cases)  retirement funds.  

Hello BP,I am looking at a number of distressed properties to potentially purchase and rehab, and am wondering what is the accepted practice for getting bids on the property, as far as what point in the process do you get a contractor out to the site to provide a bid?  

I would leave structure, personally, and let it wear out until its time to replace.In practice, though, I tend to leave most stuff intact and just take the call when it breaks.  

I have to agree with practically everything that Steve Dresner says.

There is practically one every night of the week somewhere. 

I do this for any vendor I use each year, as I carry workmens comp on my properties for myself and workers I know aren't covered themselves. but if I can prove my vendors have insurance when I'm audited, so my insurance agency compute rates in my favor, because vendors had their own coverageAs far as lien waivers, it's good practice to have anyone that worked on the house sign they have been paid and a lien waiver is used for that. 

Just upgraded to PRO and started practicing with the calculator on a few properties.My wife and I are interested in investing in multi-family housing to rent out for cash flow and capital appreciation downstream.