Banks only have 10% of the money they lend thus it makes sense for them - but for people who are not a bank why make 6% taxes as ordinary income and barely keeping up with inflationThat $1000/mo payment will be worthless in 20 years.

They could be good source for leads, they should be able to do the site work or refer to someone 'recommended' who can.For bare land- Your short 2month timeframe for permitting (city or county) and utilities is not going to be realistic or even close, most of the time.Your best bet is to find land that has a mobile (demo and scrap it) then replace.

Some of these companies are very bare bones. 

First of all, our economy is still running hot, we barely got away from seeing "We're hiring" sign everywhere, uneplyment rate is 3.7% and lower then it has been 95% of the time in the last 30 years.

That, and the fact that I would just barely recoupe the additional charges they impose for initial setup in the first 3 years, turned me off of it as an investment for the time being.

Typically, if an applicant barely meets are criteria, we will charge a higher deposit.  

I am sure it is possible to do well on a flip but most stories I hear people take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years and on their first barely break even because they are learning.

So far February (barely) and March were down but every other month has been up YoY.

As you mentioned, they do not call you when the place is barely touched to tell you to pay less, they should take the good with the bad. 

Ideally we would like to cash flow or at bare minimum break even.