Scott, this is an amazing story and it would have be very easy to sit in the corner and lick your wounds but you did great job pushing forward to complete the project and thank you for sharing.

And nothing wrong with a lick bait title either lol.

I'd start with a basic year lease SFR....not so many moving parts like BRRRs, MFRs and STRs.Get your feet wet, make the mistakes, lick your wounds and regroup....see if you like it and want to continue. 

He had some kind of a RE mentoring course and he had John Davidson singing a song "I'm giving you a rainbow..." which absolutely evoked the "Pie in the sky" pitch.Back then, seems to me, RE gurus, generally speaking, were much more blatant about making over-the-top outlandish claims that no sane person should believe in their right mind, but nevertheless a great many people would buy into those anyway I think, in large part because the economy was booming at that time and people who hated their jobs were much more willing to drop a few hundred or even thousands for a lick and a promise and then whatever they bought (even though it wouldn't work anyway if they did work it) ended up sitting on their shelf.

We are trying to figure out what gets us the best return on our money, rehab the 1300 sq ft basement fully into a mother in law if legal or just add a wet bar and minor rehab like carpets new dry wall and a lick of paint etc?....

I had a contractor steal a lot of money on this project so I just want to lick my wounds and move on.

You let the property go, cut your losses, lick your wounds, and start over with a clean slate.This happened to thousands of investors in Vegas.

I would love to talk to you sometime and lick your brain about the business.

Intel is a great example, who is building the largest chip manufacturing plant in the US right here, and it will be a $20 billion dollar investment that brings a few new thousand jobs.https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2022/01/21/intel-ohio-building-computer-chip-factories-licking-county-jersey-township/9173472002/ Another example of economic growth is the upcoming Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Inpatient Hospital which is a 1.9million square foot hospital that will bring over 800 new beds and a thousand new jobs. https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/new-osu-hospital-expected-to-transform-health-careHere are a few more recent investments https://www.10tv.com/article/money/business/hydrogen-power-company-hyperion-bringing-700-jobs-to-columbus/530-25907aab-5517-4661-a9f3-d2ed2d5be6b0 https://news.wosu.org/news/2022-02-08/rumpke-to-build-50-million-recycling-facility-in-columbus Check out The Complete Guide to the Columbus, Ohio Real Estate Market which goes through the Columbus, Ohio market in depth and will give you a better scope of where the highest levels of growth are taking place and where to look to invest.  

They understand, that you would not sue them for ''specific performance'' and if you do, it will take 3-4 years, plus attorneys' feed, etc; even if you win the case 3-4 years later, it's not worth the time and effort, lick your wounds, and don't step on the same rake any more :-)