A blind trust is used so that the beneficiary (you) don't know how the trust is invested and to avoid conflicts of interest (think the President of the United States). 

Good afternoon and happy President's Day!  

So a sponsor that's great for one investor will probably be terrible for another (and vice versa).I'm a conservative investor, so when I invest in multi-family I prefer sponsors that have at least one full real-estate cycle of experience, little to no money lost, low leverage, and high skin in the game.And there is an apartment operator that has multiple real estate cycles of experience (decades) with no money lost, low 65% less LTV, and high 10%+ skin in the game.They market under 506B so are prohibited from posting publicly on the Internet and instead function by referrals.

In all honesty, I would be more concerned about the quality of the assistant vice the geographical location.  

Or vice versa by transferring the $1200 to our personal account and paying that way?? 

I would say get an official budget, pay him fixed price, add 20% of whatever the savings, add 30% of your holding costs/time savings costs. if he is under budget but over scheduled or vice versa, you would need to balance both. for a 300k project, if actual cost is 250k, 20% of 50k = 10k in bonuses, if he is 10 days behind schedule and it costs you 100/day in holding costs = -1k, he will receive 9k bonus.

.:)When you want to sell one and buy multiple replacement propertiesWhen you want to sell multiple properties and consolidate into a larger propertyWhen you want to move from an appreciation market to a cash flow market or vice versaWhen you have excess equity that is not performing and is dragging down your ROIWhen you want to change geographiesWhen you want to change types of investment propertyWhen you want to move from active to passive investing - or vice versaWhen you want to position your assets for some personal enjoyment as well as investmentWhen you want to position your assets towards retirementWhen you want to position your assets towards tax free incomeWhen you are starting to do some estate planningWhen cap ex expenses are looming on the horizon of your current propertyWhen the current property no longer meets your desired parametersWhen depreciation has been maximized and you want to get access to more depreciable basisIn other words - Plan your investing journey. 

., CES®Vice PresidentInvestment Property Exchange Services, Inc.

Lots of conflicting opinions in here … question for all of you: what drives your decision to build vs buy, or vice versa?

In a market where new businesses are opening and old ones booming, finding buyers may be easier and vice versa.