Its not like the past few years where a dead body could have made money in real estate.

Because humans make stupid decisions every day .

That part of the "it" factor is american & human generated attention seeking.

If you have or have had a financial mess to clean up that makes you part of the human race.

The plumber came out and used a Flir camera that takes a heat sensor type reading and can find leaks in walls, and under floors and it showed we had a place of concern, the water detector guy cost about 325.00 and saved up needlessly ripping up sheet rock and pin pointed the leak within about 6 feet so we knew where to dig.Also the toilets can look like no leak,, really best way to tell is with the dye tablet you put in tank and come back in 10 min and see if there is any change.Other than that maybe a some body's running a car wash in the yard on weekends..

Human safety and property security always overrides economics.

I used to love visiting, now I don't want to step over human feces and drug needles or get shot or stabbed.

It's very simple, convenient, and relatively cheap, but is not a human so I can see how there is room for improvement. 

There, now that every body for the next 2 1/2 years understands the situation, yes, you have to exercise the Option or assign the Option to someone else to get money out.A bank will generally look at the Option fee you paid as a "down payment", if that is clearly written in the Option agreement.

Financing 110% of the value in a crime zone does not make you able to quit a heartless job and drive a Lamborghini Urus next month, that's called magical thinking.To make money in real estate you need skills: determine a location that rises in value, construct and repair everything, costing, insurance, legal, tax, weather, valuation, negotiation, to see into a human heart past a credit report to name a few.