You bear all the risk and the sponsor gets a big cut, while make preposterous fees all along the way.

New landlord here, please bear with me. 

If you are looking for cash flow immediately them short term rentals might be something you could also look into in places like Big Bear but appreciation isn't as good up there as it is down here. 

In reality you should probably start with lower risk properties and go into higher risk ones if/when you feel the desire after you've got your bearings in the biz.

And we haven't even gotten to roads, water management, soil corrections, water/sewer infrastructure, electric etc etc.. 

Just bear in mind he has a very specific private equity investing mind set.  

Did you bear some of the blame? 

Keep a polar bear in your yard.

Phase 1 is an initial assessment, more focussed on document research while Phase 2 is where they actually take soil samples etc. 3.

Here in TX the soil is mostly clay, and it shrinks and expands with humidity level (thus the need to "water the foundations" as a measure to avoid foundation cracking), so foundation problems are a common occurrence.