Your best bet is probably to find an older roofer as they are more likely to have experience with slate.

It typically only takes me about two weeks to find a tenant and, oddly enough, the time of year or time of month don't really matter that much. 

But, an office or sitting area may be the better bet.

Yeah I bet he is!

I'm pretty handy but have never done one before so getting one as close to the same size will probably be my best bet....

I would love to just buy 2-4unit properties with the money as down payments but i don't want to lock up his cash for the next 30 years which would require a cash out REFI and thats betting that enough renovations have been done to provide the money, i estimate on a 150k property it would take me about 10 years to pay him back his. 20% down payment at 10% interest (this being done using my cash flow ) this situation doesn't seem ideal to me...

What amazes me is that they let this company fund 5 deals at once before they actually built up a track record of successes on the site.And as the investor, what do you think the odds are that they'll ever get another loan on that site - now that they failed to deliver the deal they promised.

These would be your best bet for a good cash flow property with as little down as possible.Goal of Investment - What is the single most important factor?

If you read enough in the archives on this site you'll find other posts about TX and some of the "odd" things down here.

I'd bet that the answer is the vast majority.