This causes them to be walking a tight line following the minimum requirements for the short-term rental loophole.

B) Hold the lots, pay the taxes each year and just sit tight to see where things go, hoping in a few years demand will pick back up and then either sell the lots or build. 

Project Timeline: Specify the start and completion dates, including any deadlines for specific milestones.

As a GC by trade, they also provide you with one pivotal point of liability coverage as well as being contracturally obligated to meet your deadlines, quality standards, plan implementation, and inspections with the municipality.  

Recognize being the GC is work, requires strong organization skills (especially with tight timelines), decent communication skills, and design skills.I have acted as GC many times and have done well on these rehabs but I recently completed a large rehab (completed mid May).  

I think they are trying to take advantage of me and maybe money is probably tight for them and they are just trying to use me!

Well, the deadline is the end of January and we typically send by the 3rd week of January.

If you miss that deadline (because of a failed sale or a tenant that won’t move out.) it’s all taxable, if you move back in to it as your primary it’s only a pro-rated tax free gain when you eventually sell.

That has less to do with crime (in the area that I live I don't see it as a big issue) and more to do with taxes and tenant-friendly laws.For any area that is higher crime, you should budget for higher vacancy (and significantly higher vacancy if you don't set tight screening standards and have to evict a tenant) and higher repairs and maintenance.Good luck!

Rental market is even more tight.