I would personally recommend that people get their education in which ever aspect of REI that they want to focus in through multiple different sources.  

Give them 30 days or one full rental period notice, whichever is greater.  

You stop depreciating property either when you have fully recovered your cost or other basis or when you retire it from service, whichever happens first.Placed in Service You place property in service when it is ready and available for a specific use, whether in a business activity, an income-producing activity, a tax-exempt activity, or a personal activity.

Whichever makes you sleep better at night.  

Whichever classes do that, that's your answer.

At this point, whichever route you go, I am sure you will find success. 

I didnt read through all of this thread - however I have done the same when the stock market was tanking -- the company fund my employer was maintaining managed to lose no money so that was a plus -- however I was tired of the consistent 0% return and took a loan out for some investment real estate.It might vary from company to company on the terms - however I'm sure most is set by the IRS --- what I've found out is that you can take out the max of 50% of the value of the 401k or $50k whichever is less -- 5 year payback period for anything other than the purchase of a primary residence (they will give you a 10 yr payback period on that)   One caveat I recently learned about on the $50k max loan -- is that when you look back the trailing 12 mos, you can have had no more than $50k outstanding.SO maybe this will make sense -- I used my 401k last year as a temporary short term loan - needed cash quick to redeem a property - so took $30k out to complete the purchase in cash when partnered with others funds.  

Fyi, under CA law, no contractor is allowed to accept more than $1,000 or 1% of the contract up front, whichever is less.

:-)------Anyway, to bring this thread back around to the OP's original question, my profit criteria for flips is 15% of the ARV (resale value) or $15,000 -- whichever is greater.  

Whichever order you want, no requirement.