I spend enough time strategizing how to manipulate city rules and get the most bang for my buck; let him manage the day to day.

He had the audacity, while the other agent was showing me the property, to text me and tell me that, "he made the right choice" because he sold his vehicle. 

In all seriousness, I really respect your choice to "follow your dream" at such an early age instead of taking the path of least resistance and going to work for "The Man" right after college.Thus far, your recipe for success has been to work harder, not "smarter", control costs by doing all of your own labor and buying all of your own materials, living frugally, renting them out as you complete them and then, rinse and repeat.Screw working "smarter."

That means you're likely putting all your contracting eggs in that basket, and if for some reason it doesn't work out with your FIL (too expensive, low quality, too slow, etc), you won't have the experience going out to find contractors and will likely make some bad decisions with respect to future contractors.Think of it this way -- 90% of all contractors aren't going to be good choices for rehabbing/flipping houses. 

Earnest MoneyThe Buyer's earnest money shall be held in escrow by an agent of Buyer's choice. 4.

On the Bigger Pockets forums, S-Corp appears to be a popular (but not universal) choice for flipping, as an s-corp would help with avoid profits all being taxed as ordinary income (Federal, State, and then an additional 15.3% for both sides of FICA).In my case, tax rate something as follows:INCOME TAX- Federal (up to 36.9k): 15.0%- CA State (up to 39.3k): 8.0%- FICA - both sides of medicare and social security: 15.3%--------- Total Ordinary Income Tax Rate (Fed+State+FICA): 38.3%- Total Dividend Tax Rate (Fed+State): 23.0%I could be calculating this wrong, but for the flip scenario, I'm estimating the numbers as follows (just updated them to reflect new financing terms and flat-fee MLS): - Purchase Price: $14,000.00- ARV: $60,000.00- COST Rehab: $18,000- COST 5 months of holding costs (flip insurance, debt, utilities): $1,727.50- COST Closing costs (flat-fee MLS and marketing/ 3% buyers realtor fees/ county transfer tax/ 2% closing costs): $3,465.00PRE-TAX PROFIT: $21,707.50Applying the above tax table, the post-tax profits appears to be as follows: - No S-Corp total taxes (100% taxed at 38.3%): $8,313.97- With S-Corp total taxes ($1,500 taxed at 38.3%, remaining taxed at 23%): $5,222.23So, assuming my numbers are correct, with an S-Corp, it's a tax-savings of around $3,000.

The wrong choice can be very expensive, I've been told!

Some borrowers use FHA strategically and may put a large down payment for its other advantages such as 56.99% DTI backend, 2 year CH7BK, no time seasoning for shortsale in the past if borrower had no lates, qualify with foreclosure in 3 years or less, etc

Regarding moving money out of Los Angeles; my first choice would be to stay right here for my next purchase however the more I work with the numbers, the more it makes sense to at least widen my search and become more knowledgeable about cities in which I have family (eyes on the ground).

Thank you for your replies -Had no choice -spent around 3K to fix things up to get the CO that my lender insisted.