These are some wild stories!

There are some things you can do to protect yourself, such as getting multiple estimates and sticking with contractors that are reputable (for example, I found that sites that have a rating that contractors need to maintain like Angie's List provides better contractors versus places like Craigslist where it's the wild West.).

If you want to Airbnb it, maybe you can offer splitting the profits with them, make it worth their wild but you manage it.

Then after a week he switches back to his trusty camel non filters , buys a pit bull and invites his wild drunken buddies over for weekend parties .

You can make sure assumptions based on the condition of the neighborhood and outside condition but there is always a wild card involved. 

It's funny but there still exists in the wild a critter that can help you out in unfamiliar areas. 

It is going to take some time for that market to get back to where it should be after the over development this is common in Multi and commercial development.. at least what I have seen over the years  lag time is  so long to get permitted what is wild is when you see buildings that stop before they are finished.I remember a day in Honolulu there were foundations all over the place and see throughs.Vegas still has some and one huge one on the strip still sitting there 11 years later.in Portlandia we had half a dozen were the big underground parking structures were built started to go vertical and financing was stopped.. those have in the last 3 to 4 years though finally been finished but they sat there mothballed for half a decade. 

Hopefully we get more IRS guidance soon as well, as we are in a bit of the Wild West currently in regards to that.

Definatly not the wild west up here.

Unless it's in an area with 15%+ annual appreciation.Also, that capex calculation is wild.