What your going to do is work your *** off weekends and nights fixing this crapper up so it's decent, make it charming, get Craig list help for 8 bucks an hour.. they may have bad criminal backgrounds so watch your stuff but work them like no tomorrow ok, and do this off your extra income your making per month and ALSO be finding another car to flip on the side to fund this fix up of used wood, old doors, some paint and a LOT of HARD LABOR...but here is the key, by doing this if you BOUGHT WELL BELOW MARKET on this UGLY house....guess what your doing. you are MULTIPLYING your value from your low cost labor and skills at finding good deals for free stuff to fix it up...This is pure brain spit so I am just typing as I think sorry...so....Here is the thing, IF you did this right, you took 1k and in less then 6 months you could and should be turning it into lets say 25k in profit when you sell this house that is now "nice" "cute" and a good "first time home owner home"so, that's one way to take 1k and start to become financially free, it's basically what I did but I started with a little more cash, and now my personal value after many deals has a decent amount of zeros in it.The really bad part is trust me when I say this the first part is THE WORST and the HARDEST. the more you do. the more capital you have access to the less work it becomes in a somewhat unfair exponential curve.  

It's difficult to fight such things but I was going to ask a friend at Institute For Justice about it.

(Name, address, Tax ID number, what legal entity they are...)Also in your case as you're nervous about upsetting the crooks, the notification to a new vendor prior to the work started that you require a W9 from them before a check will be issued will be the 'heads up'for  the criminals that you intend to 1099 them. 

The decision came down January 14, 2016 opening up the Defendants to both criminal and civil prosecution at both state and federal levels.

We perform criminal, credit and background checks on everyone in the home over age 18.

There's a lot that can go wrong and can result in criminal charges if you screw it up.I typically hire private investigators before I've done my adverse possession cases. 

I agree with @WayneBrooks as there are a lot of variables here and anyone who (1) has experience and (2) guaranteeing up to 40% returns would probably already have his rolodex of contacts and wouldn't need your money.I cant advise you on analyzing the development side, but I'd make sure I check the local state criminal records for him (great way to get some info on his past) and ask for past projects he's completed and then do your due diligence and make sure that the builder is actually his company.In terms of specifics:-How much minimum is he looking for?

Before I kick the bucket I'm going to make sure these people, a few more than others are charged  criminally.  

Were any of the Justices replaced?

So, that metric is just icing if it holds.