I don't mean to simplify an exceedingly difficult question, but:Investor buys property at discount - investor is able to CF because of low basis - investor performs value add though round of CapEx - investors sells property at higher basis justifiable by higher capitalization of the new and improved NOI - buyer is less an investor and more a high earner looking for yield - buyer realizes CapEx is needed a few years down the road - doesn't do it because wants to keep the money - property deteriorates - property eventually sold as distressed - rinse and repeat until property is functionally/financially obsolescent...Not rocket science, if you think about it.

Questions: (I really need to simplify the process)1.

I did simplify it quite a bit, but it is really not much more complicated than I am explaining.

If you had to put 20% down (of the 300,000) to buy it - you have $60,000 invested to acquire it, $100,000 in renovations, and just under $25,000 in acquisition costs, for a total of $185,000 into the property (neglecting insurance, taxes, etc, etc... so this is very simplified.  

You know everyone's issue with animals could be simplified by simply accepting pets and bumping the rents up.

I have a property closing on 12/29, and another in January.I'll start there and ask follow-ups based on the answer.Thanks,Hi Michael, Let me try to simplify the answer for you. 

But we also want to simplify in every possible way the development offers that we make.

Furthermore, the calls rarely take less than a minute and Mike's attempt to simplify this is obsurd.

An overly simplified way(not as simple; will take months and money) is to: Get a general contractor to create a budget and building plan; work on getting permits; get environmental done, re-zone if need be/possible; feasibility study; see how much cash you will have to deploy and then seek lenders for lending offers.There are way more steps but at a minimum these are some .Since you are looking to build,A bridge loan(interest only)/private money loan for a storage unit or a ground up construction project.

If the software is not simplifying your life or making you more accurate, you shouldn't use it.Software does have extremely helpful features like online payments, marketing syndication (click a button and your property is advertised on multiple sites), electronic document review/signing, maintenance tracking, and owner reports.