So we settled at the original quote plus materials minus $500 for labor not rendered.

No person engaged in real estate activity without a currently valid license shall have the right to receive any compensation for services so rendered.

My other option is to go there (a state of my choosing) and do everything myself, which will be very hard as I haven't been to the states for many years (and when I was I was 8 years old), plus I'm very young and inexperienced, which could also be a downside regarding people trying to take advantage of me, with me rendered defenseless by inexperience.

They see something that you don't such as declining of neighbourhood, big employer go bust, etc.They may aslo know of some major deterioration in the building that require huge expense that may render the property as non-profitable.

I know when my wife and i considered a property management company the terms were not negotiable for the services rendered they get their 11% fee off the top...:) Either way good luck

You may make a good case for depreciating the use of 100% of the property, but in so doing you will also lose any chance of exempting any capital gains due to personal use when you go to sell the property.This would be a situation where I would want to examine all of the facts before rendering a decision.

My immediate plan was to take this grad school time to completely develop & package this idea then sale the hell out of it with a kickass business plan package, economy impact, schedules, concept site plan & renderings, all while showing and ensuring that I'm creditable, talented, and completely capable of getting the project completed & cash flowing.

During the recent economic turmoil, asset classes that were considered uncorrelated moved in tandem and rendered many diversification strategies useless.In any event, I am a long-term value maximizer and for me a bumpy high return is preferrable to a stable low return.

Forgot to mention, it may be a better approach, since this is an investment property and she in fact has other business concerns, to look at the property as a tax loss rather than potentially taking a huge financial loss.Of course, I am not sure of the situation and it sounds like she may have an option arm or negative amortization loan which might render any long-term strategy pointless.

This determination can render property virtually worthless, as building requirement for a flood way are often so expensive to implement that there is no improvement that can pay for itself.