If your market has a significant number of FHA or VA loans with zero to low down payments where a buyer can't afford to pay their agent out of pocket, your sellers may end up cutting off a significant portion of the home buying market, or once they do come around to considering negotiating on BAC, they may feel deceived, and now you may lose the potential for the recurring client that will ultimately otherwise drive your seller lead acquisition cost down.For planning: In a great business, a good rule of thumb is to estimate:100% Gross Income35% Cost of Sale30% Expenses35% Profit <-- very few businesses achieve this, but we're looking at an ideal solutionAssuming a national price average of $300k and 0.6% GCI, you'd be looking at:$1,800 Gross Income$630 Cost of Sale <-- agents/ transaction coordinators$540 Expenses <-- photos/ signs/ lockboxes/ Errors & Omissions insurance/ MLS fees/ liability insurance/ tech fees/ VA admin support/ marketing to get clients for the business (this piece should be roughly 10% of revenue, which would be $54 in this case)$630k ProfitIf your business sold 1,000 of these homes a year, you would have:$1,800,000 Gross Income$630k Cost of Sale <-- agents/ transaction coordinators (you could have 5 agents handling 200 sales each at $100k incomes and TC support at scale)$540k Expenses <-- photos/ signs/ lockboxes/ Errors & Omissions insurance/ MLS fees/ liability insurance/ tech fees/ VA admin support/ marketing to get clients for the business (you're going to est $125k in runner fees alone for signs; $25k+ in signs, $54k in ads to attract clients, $200k in photos, $10-20k minimum in E&O, $2k in liability, and what tech/ VA support)$630k Profit Scale costs will include hiring a managing broker for compliance to help oversee all of these transactions and implement legal changes and training.

I realize there is probably no simple answers but I am all ears from all sources. 

My biggest piece of advice is to connect with local chicago real estate investors in person...highly suggest checking out the christmas party on 12/12:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/1218823-chic...

Or it might just be a fancy piece of equipment that never gets used that you could have rented the 3 times a year you need it.

Some of your quotes from this thread will be used as supporting material in the production.As some of you may have guessed, a lot of information about her has been removed since her case came to light so it's sort of difficult to piece this story togetherIf anyone has any information they'd like to share that would help paint a clearer picture of her actions and the damage she's caused, please reach out to me.

But, you get the piece of mind knowing it’s likely done correctly.

And I hope to be ready to buy within 9 months (we are moving from LA)  Hey Eric, Sounds like you have a solid goal and are putting the pieces into place.

You have the management piece figured out, revenue side looking up, and the area is good.

A drain pan is a $50, maybe $100 piece of plastic that should have already been there unless they cracked it trying to install their washer. 

You can then GC the project yourself and let them help be eyes and ears and offer you the speed to get the projects done on time.As for financing, I had great success using a commercial loan product with a small community bank.