Abating the odor (tobacco and Marijuana) is costly and time consuming. 

They have a place they could potentially close on by the end of the year, but its new construction and the closing is subject to change based on the builder (and the area was just in the path of Beryl, so that timeline could have been impacted), so if that's the only thing they're thinking of exchanging into, I'm inclined to suggest they consider consuming the losses now for simplicity's sake, especially if the exchange timeline can't be guaranteed to work out.

Zoning - There is a whole template in the STR Handbook (too large to post here) that will let you know what your house zoning means, and what the requirements are for your zoning (parking, etc).

As more and more states see flipping “wholesaling” residential real estate where a homeowner is involved as needing consumer protection the fantasy of no capital no experience easy entry in this field will be eliminated (good riddance!).  

So free houses will be a while, but I do worry about a shift in the job market.My gut feeling is we will see unemployment depart from the ultra low 3.9% it is now in the next couple months, which has more to do with consumer spending than with AI.

So, for example, MN law Sec. 82.67 MN Statues has, in summary "A real estate broker or salesperson shall provide to a consumer in the sale and purchase of a residential real property transaction at the first substantive contact with the consumer an agency disclosure form in substantially the form set forth in subdivision...."

Fund that flip is smaller, but also less investors, so at least the deals are not funded in just a few seconds.Both platforms suffer from some of the problems that pretty much all of the hard money loan platforms do: not enough volume for someone wanting to maintain a large portfolio, not enough conservative 65% LTV loans, too may loans and judicial only states (where it's extremely expensive and time-consuming if you need to foreclose which can cause losses), and single note risk (i.e not diversified).

Consumers are more educated than ever (thanks to resources like BP!)

Private/Hard Money lenders do not lend on owner occupied properties due to consumer protection laws.

I have had another odd issues with airbnb reviews showing up positive on my side but not on the consumer side.