The confusion comes when new dealers/operators think the need an identity to deal in real estate, "I'm a wholesaler, I'm a buy and hold investor, I'm a rehab guy"...... what difference does it make to Harry Homeowner who or what you call yourself?"

Hi @Tyler Divine, yes there is...1) Provide vendors with a takeoff (you can outsource this) - no two individuals will produce identical takeoffs and if it's a sales rep doing it, cavet emptor.  

So, umbrella insurance policy, which I've never needed (knock on wood).I'm no expert, but I have also heard and read about putting property into a trust in such a way as to protect your identity as the owner; you can't sue who you can't find ... this is intriguing to me if anybody knows more about how to pull this off.

You can still maintain an open feel, while also not doing something that would be too non-standard for a typical single family home (again, unless that's what you're going for).For reference, we did a house many years ago with an almost identical kitchen/lower-level floor-plan, and this is how the standard wood railing looked:

Now I notice that other identical houses are being sold for $100k more than what I bought my house for.

For example, if you see a property that rents for $50 more per month than an identical property, except one has a garage and one does not, you can extrapolate that a garage is 'worth' $50.

@Justin FernandezHere is one definition of "joint venture": "a commercial enterprise undertaken jointly by two or more parties that otherwise retain their distinct identities"For the sake of simplicity and what is most likely in our kind of real estate, let's agree for our discussion that we're talking only about 2 distinct parties (as opposed to 3 or more) joining in the JV.

The lists for both are identical unless I’m missing something.

(Simplistically, another car dealer does have the same type of car for sale, in real estate, there is not another property on the face of the earth that is identical or even as similar as two new or used, blue, models by the same maker with the same equipment and condition.

So the appraisal shows a neighboring home that was sold last month, almost identical, that sold for 405k – The home we are purchasing is in contract for 463k!