I come from a family of construction, builders, and art and faux and i've watched them do some pretty amazing things.

If they refuse, life will start to get tough for them - you might want to explain that the process is that the sheriff will show up, unannounced, and evict everyone and everything - and the neighbors will be watching - and they sure wouldn't want that to happen and neither would you...

One other thing to watch is setbacks on neighboring systems and property lines/structures.

To get the big picture view of investing and fixing houses all you have to do is to go on TV and watch all the Home Improvement shows and the Flip this House shows and the Decorating shows and the Real Estate Sale shows.

Every landlord should watch videos of destruction like this as a reminder that vacancy is better than accepting a bad tenant.

One thing to watch out for is that you don't stop seeing the trees for the forest.

So with a high profit bargain, but no budget or plan to instruct us, we managed to spend a tremendous amount of capital and watch our money disappear before our eyes. 

The phrase "just get out there" insinuates that we need to, literally, get "out" there as if you could go into the housing market.What is really meant by this phrase is to "watch" the market.

What you want to see is strip mall construction, not vacancy signs.Locally, I've seen good and viable businesses close due to lease increases - - and then only watch for two years as the space went vacant. 

(watch out for the JUNK FEES that most of them stick in there)A lawyer - he'll be glad to ask you for a retainer - or charge you a fee for a using a boiler plate conventional contract that has way too much stuff in it to be useful for your purpose as an investor.