This will give you one critical piece of information, that it may take X days to get an offer and sell, and the second item will give you what your competition is right now.

Tailor these amounts to the significance of the task; for example:Roofer: $1,000/day (critical to weatherproof the site).Painter or garage door installer: $100–$200/day.Contract Value & Payment Terms:Agreed payment amount (lump sum or itemized costs).Breakdown of payment terms:Deposits.Progress draws.Retainage (if applicable).Scope of Work:Be as detailed as possible.

Detroit is very much a block-by-block city, so having local knowledge is absolutely critical.

But sure as heck not impossible, it just takes a commitment to learning a very complex detailed facet of business and regulations. 

We used our own cash we had no private investors.The other critical part was that we negotiated a 3 year wind down if our bank did not renew this was critical in 09 it allowed for a semi organized wind down that most of us in the HML space were doing in 09 to 2011 with all of our defaulted loans..

The buyers had invested a lot into the deal (~$100M) and purchasing the property was critical to complete their development.

You're right to think critically about this.

Proper time tracking and logs are critical for demonstrating compliance with this rule.I've only seen one person with a W-2 qualify for reps, and that was from a tax court case where people had to come in in person and attest to his hard work.

This is critical.

they perform a service and are compensated.not trying to be critical, just trying to protect you as you get started.