We eat the first one, thy get a picture of all the glory the plumber pulled out and the second time they get billed.

Nothing will piss off the inspector faster than missing an inspection.My last piece of advice, in an effort to not make this a book length post, deals with the money.

The absolute best way to avoid taxes is not earn income.  

@Joseph Alfie the first thing you should do is go walk the property.

I start by telling them we have a lot of money tied up in the property, and we've been burned by folks that wanted us to believe the best of them.

@Travis TimmonsI had the same reaction as you did, but I held off on posting since I don't yet invest in STRs (I'm all LTR so far, and looking into my first MTR).Buying an STR "to offset income" makes me nervous as well...

It's time to run the numbers to determine the cash-flow.

I would definitely reach out to several brokerages within the area that could better facilitate as the middleman when Insurance Companies do reach out. 

I would simply hire a good civil that has done development in that jurisdiction and pay for a feasibility study and let them run through all the check items.. but thats really just the start.. also for context .. these projects require 350 to 750k in CASH up front to get to approved plat status ..

What areas do you find the best ROI on your flips?