What industry are you in?

As for the question about oil prices, I would agree with @Richard Spooner that Houston will not suffer this downturn as much as it did in the 80's due to so much more diversity in the types of industry that are now supporting the region.

I'm new to real estate investing however, I know my way around construction sites as I have been in the industry for over 20 years.

I work in the insurance industry presently.  

I think the opportunity to bird dog or work for anyone in the real estate industry is good exposure to the industry itself.

Any depreciation deductions you took on previous tax returns (or were allowed to take, weather you took the deductions or not) will have to be recaptured (included as income) before figuring the capital gains tax or tax exclusion.

So maybe I'm just seeing the severe cases, but I suspect they're problematic.For a landlord, that's an issue b/c you could have more repairs, and phone calls, and coordinating 3+ ppl's schedules, and your passive income becomes active, plus it's costing you money.The other thing is that far too often they end up adding a cost to your tenants b/c they do not save money like the industry claims.

I'm looking for some guidance from some of the more experienced California flip investors in luxury homes to see if they might use a matrix or formula to plug in a set of  rehab estimation numbers for a luxury rehab as they are initially looking into the potential of a project being an acquisition candidate before they actually walk the property.I can typically create an estimated improvement budget for almost any commercial property in both office and industrial for proforma purposes before visiting the property, but residential is a new animal for me. 

There are so many books discussing general knowledge on commercial leasing but it's somehow limited on actual owners/brokers' experiences with the industry whether it's for retail or office space. 

(Sorry I dont know much about industries there)