Sucks to see people get burned buying properties like this. 

I did this recently on a development project and had to give the investor an additional 10% of the ownership in the LLC which translates into more of the cash flow for them but myself and business partner were able to get a loan that far exceeded our net worths and we were able to get the guaranty to burn down to 25% as we hit certain rental income thresholds.

And there really is not that much in volume in the ashes, most everything burns.  

We had a duplex burn up in Paradise, but thankfully, no one was hurt.

If you have lots of money to burn then those leads off of websites could prove valuable because you can beat your competitors by marketing to the list more frequently.

The key is seeing variety and not getting burned out.  

Unfortunately most folks who get large sums of money burn thru it I would suggest he talk to a commercial RE agent about buying something that will safely return 6–7% so he has income over time.

If you want to go slow and play it safe then I suggest you go to real estate school but if you want to to burn rubber then jump in the pool.

Plus, if you went to court, you'd burn that bridge with the seller (perhaps he may be useful in the future, although unlikely)?

So you don’t get burned ever.