For a rehab most of those issues are grandfathered in and nobody is going to tell you to chop off the left 15 feet of the building to meet side setbacks on an existing building.It would be cheaper to find an existing vacant lot rather than spend the money on a tear down, all other things being equal.

I have spend a lot of time and money on marketing that has paid off, but never for the type of homes I prefer.

We invested there in 1997 but we felt that in order continue to be effective you need to either set up an office and staff it with your own employees or spend a week per month there (Buying, Fixing and Selling or Renting), then you need Volume to justify your time...

Doing so would only add to your financial obligations and it is best to keep your debt manageable and have cash reserves for the unexpected.There are ways to buy properties and get started without good credit, but I would recommend you spend some time learning and working on your personal finances before you start working on becoming a creative investor.

., resident in the forums.Click on the "learn tab" at the top of this page, and you could be spending many hours with the Information that is available.Raymond

However, after spending time here on bigger pockets, I wish we had used the money toward other real estate investments instead.

., resident in the forums.Click on the "learn tab" at the top of this page, and you could be spending many hours on the Information that is available.Raymond

Doing so in DC is a painful and long process so it pays off to spend time upfront in the tenant screening.

So if my ARV is 150k, I plan to spend about 15k on those soft costs and make 30k in profit.

You'd spend more time arguing over who should do what than actually doing whatever needs to be done.It sounds like you and your potential partners need to put a lot more thought into the partnership arrangement and spend more time looking at division of labor/responsibility so that everybody is on the same page.