I completely understand, but most people are clueless as to what you are saying.. 

You can pay for expediting for plan reviews and the best way to "expedite" beyond that is to make sure that your engineer / consultants are submitting complete packages each review cycle.

It's a completely parasitic relationship. 

@Cornelius GarlandI completely agree with your approach.

Completely agree with Luke. 

Full gut renovation, including but not limited to full replumb, full rewire, complete mechanical upgrades, and new apartment finishes from studs.

With comps ranging from $875K-$1M and your estimated build cost at $550K, the after-completion value gives you a significant equity cushion, making this project highly attractive to lenders.If you plan to hold and rent the property, you could refinance into a DSCR loan after construction, which bases lending on rental income rather than personal income.

It was a completely foreign concept to me.

If you want to toss everything left into a dumpster before you have legal confirmation of him completely vacating the unit and confirmation that you can trash everything left behind, make sure you catalog it well.

My capital continues to be completely tied up in the property since I'm pretty maxed on my LTV and likely can't unlock any more equity with a HELOC or something like that.The goal of this project was always meant to be a short term exit so I could continue to try and aggressively grow my real estate portfolio, but now it feels like I'm stuck at first based.