I will say, though, that the HGTV Effect has resulted in some crappy looking flips in my neck of the woods.

I look at the results.

So the net result is this: you get 95% of the net sales proceeds from the sale, and you defer your capital gains tax for 30 years.

In lieu of the LLC I'll be carrying the highest amount of liability I can get on the landlord policy, and I'll be adding a multi-million dollar umbrella policy.But even if I do set up LLC's, I'm still going to carry a multi-million dollar umbrella because  owners of LLC's can still be sued pesonally if their decisions resulted in a serious injury/death (such as the failure to not remove snow as stated above, or not to fix that faulty furnace that was emitting CO into the house, or some other form of negligence).

As a result we overpaid in interest and the appraisal came in so late that, when it was inaccurate in a number of ways (sq ft. was wrong, rents were wrong, comps very far off).

I leave in Seattle area and the kind of deals I can afford don't match the prices here.

You can ask them to credit you for the replacement or require them to replace due to the results of the inspection.

In any kind of a downturn, the result will  be giving properties back to the bank. 

I've seen first-hand the disastrous results of part-time project management!

I've done it on 4 or 5 rental tubs and cultured marble counter-tops with great results.