In suburban neighborhoods, neighbors object to you parking in legal parking spaces in front of their homes, even if you point out, yell till you're blue in the face, it's a public street.

Now I do not share this to brag at all, I am a very humble person, but the objective here is to illustrate how important it is to always follow up with your leads, even when they constantly tell you no.

Does anyone have some objective data (crime, tenant quality, etc) for the area along IH 37 between IH 10 and 410?  

Along with as you know being an Oregionian our draconian land use laws create these intense shortage of buildable lands.. much to the dismay and objection of our politico's  .. they fight tooth and nail for affordable housing then create these rules that you have to follow that makes affordable housing virtually impossible for all but non profit or state to do.

Current objectives are to learn, absorb knowledge, and network in the hopes of jumping into this and giving it a "go."

The beautiful thing about real estate is there are always multiple options or solutions to an objective or issue.

BP is great for general investing, but there's a lot of "shiny objects" that can be distracting.

My main objective is to acquire the property so that that i can pull money out of that house and invest in two other properties.  

However, its not the worst idea in the world...you could always get out on loan objection if your buyer falls through.

They usually need payments from ongoing work to buy materials for the job they just won.The best way to handle payments with them is to set up a schedule of regular payments, triggered by objective milestones, and to hold back 5-10% in retainage until after the work is complete and approved.For example, if you are doing a roof for $24,000.$6000 @ demo (less 5% - $300)$6000 when roof material is delivered to the home (less 5%)$6000 when tiles are on the home (less 5%)$6000 when roof passes final inspection (less 5%)$1200 in retainage paid to the contractor once owner signs off that work is 100% complete (site is clean, no driveway stains, no stains on home, etc.).Granted this is a rough outline and your negotiation will vary, but you need to always stay just a little behind in them to motivate them to finish your work before running off to the next paying customer.Good Luck,Bob