@Manolo D. we were definitely happy with the overall outcome. the GC we used did a great job. we plan on using his crew again on our next property if possible. however, I'm guessing you're referring to my other discussion about rehab costs from my contractor. we were happy with the outcome of this project but I don't have anything to compare this to. the fact of the matter is we don't know if his prices were fair for the market. we were in very unique circumstances on the last project where we had flexibility with our budget, so even if he charged more than the competition we still came out on top. moving forward we need to know more details. we are currently making offers on properties in need of rehab and we're using this GC's quote to help us budget for our max offer. if we can use him and still make a competitive offer then we will but we are getting beat by other offers. we just need to analyze all factors to see what we can change in order to compete. the two main concerns are that we are up against other investors making cash offers so they have no loan contingency and no mortgage payments inflating their holding costs, plus they probably have cheaper labor and material costs. so, we're just trying to analyze everything. our GC did a great job, only went slightly over budget compared to his original estimate, but we did plan for contingency and I ended up doing a lot of the work, so we were overall under budget, and he offered the quality of work we were happy with.

I have several questions about becoming licensed, some of which may be rather unique:1)Does the source of my 168 hours of classwork matter to a broker?

One main reason I traveled a lot because i had the time to do it and unique opportunities to get the local experience.

Todd Dexheimer sounds like you have some unique experiences.

Ryan typically I would agree if this wasnt so unique.

Really learning an area from the ground up is quite a task.

Go work as an assistant at a large single family property management company, get your RE License and do things the right wayAs a property manager, if youwant to lease, rent, list, procure prospects, negotiate, or assist in any of these tasks, you will needto have a real estate broker's license. ...

Now, due to our variety of tasks, I am competent in the areas of excavation, concrete, wood framing, flooring, roofing, some electrical, and some plumbing.

I am referring to tools to keep track of tasks, expenses, etc. with reporting capabilities.

You could partner with a more experienced real estate investor and see if they can come up with more unique ideas for your particular situation.