Better materials such as stronger  lumber were used when the earlier vintage properties were built and many  contained design characteristics such as stone or brick work and intricate millwork that are too costly to replicate today meaning many buildings are significantly below todays replacement cost. 

See what's on facebook marketplace & craigslist, so many people have extra construction materials from remodels they'll give away for like $20.

Philadelphia has implemented various forms legislation over the years between abatements, land banks and density bonuses geared towards promoting development in areas that suffered from disinvestment and housing affordability challenges with some legislation having been more effective than others. 

Nothing better than four draws and never a lot of money up front "for materials".

I'm starting to wonder if Dealmachine is just really great at promotion of the product.

From talking to locals, there's a couple of issues than need to be addressed, some are the non-ecological practices that some of those developers have, unfortunately, our government profits from this investors and allows them to destroy manglers (which are the natural water purifying system of that area) dismantling hectares of mangroves and degraded the habitat of resident and migratory species burying animals alive.There's proof of fecal material floating beneath the city of Tulum, only 20% of the water is sent to the water treatment plant, there's no infrastructure for the exponential growth.The landfills in the middle of the jungle that is leaking hazardous pollutants into the freshwater system and that something that developers won't tell you.I love my country and it would be a disaster for everybody if this place ends up like some other great beaches around the world, that are completely ruined by greedy investors not following the rules.There's no urban or comprehensive master plan, and one of the risks is that Tulum will be like Playa del Carmen is today, overgrown and with environmental devastation.I will advise doing a lot of research before getting something in Tulum, different country, different rules, and practices.

We have found that setting our expectations about what we want is helpful (financial performance, level of renovation we can handle, forced equity opportunities, number of bedrooms, etc) and then waiting for a deal to materialize. 

When you read that material and you have a question, it will then be a specific question that can be answered.

All said, you will find many folks within these forums that are strong promoters of self-directed IRAs.

I recently flew to hawaii from AMEX Platinum Points but it was just because I did the opening card promotion minimum amount and got a ton of points.