This is not yoursituation, but just to walk through the different thought processesin Holding/Selling that a friend of mine is going through.Helped my friend getinto the Self Storage business and walked him through the wholeprocess from evaluating the market, selecting a site, developing thesite, systems, financing, insurance, etc.

Well one thing that is interesting in regards to Earnest Money is that you take a place like Ohio, I'd imagine it's the same in Oregon but in Ohio the Division of Real Estate regulates the activities of real estate brokerages and their trust accounts but the Division of Insurance is who regulates title companies.

If you have checkbook control you’ll have a bank account with a bank that has FDIC insurance up to $250k per account.  

Not only that most of ours we saved within 1 to 3 days of the sale so it was hair on fire getting the reinstatement back to the trustee.. total risk on our part.. give the seller some money we always did.. and then record the deed  WE did our own deeds in house.. buy without title insurance etc etc.  

Anyone speaking in "sure-thing / simple" terms, I call BS. 

You will have to gather more accurate operating costs (vacancy loss, taxes, utilities, insurance, mgmt fees, maintenance, HOA) to best determine potential future performance.

So on numerous occasions, I have expressed my concerns about staying within my budget.Now on top of this, the property manager let the pipes freeze and they leaked and the boiler also cracked which I was told to file an insurance claim.

Kalamaras, we were ready to close your file, we needed to change Title Companies as your Title Agency was refusing or could not add proper endorsements because of their Underwriting Insurance Carrier.  

When I filed a claim, my insurance company denied it because the property was under rehab and not rented.

First, Are you licensed and insured to manage other people's properties?