You own the inside living space but the owner of the building owns the land and physical building, so maintains the grounds and externals of the building. 

It's time to get back to the basics and find your solid ground.

Enjoy your perceived higher ground as you curse those who will be paying out to benefit others. 

-Do you hire a local team member to be your boots on the ground in that geography and do the viewings and showings for you?

It would also involve review by the planning and the streets commissions with regards to the impact of parking density and traffic, who could also reject the zoning variance application on those grounds.

But realistically we don't know how to do that.A couple things we were considering:**I heard about boots on the ground.

So mull on those for some time before you make a move.Also, keep in mind Phase 3 bailout caused the market to go up.

Out of that loan when we closed everyone got paid up front.. the teams on the ground got their profit the marketing company got their spiff / commish and we now had a loan in place.. once rehab was done the take out lender sent in the same appraiser who did the apprasial for the PRe qual.. and they did what was called a 442.. which verified all the work was done and then the loan would close shortly there after.In those days we could all make money at 65% of ARV.. that was enough to pay profits to the operator on the ground and pay the marketing company their fee's.. when the take out loan closed we got our return on our HML .. and the investor ended up with the home and a new loan.. now generally they did a 75% ARV loan so they actually walked out of the transaction with between 5 and 10k of refi proceeds. many times we would do 4 at once for the buyer.. all they need was the fico score.. and 4k up front.. they would get 20 to 40k back at closing tax differed and the property should generate 100.00 to 150.00 per month positive cash flow all expenses accounted for.

In-Ground swimming pool installed -- I am trying to get the appraisal amount as high as I can so it'll allow concessions for Closing Costs and Gift of Equity as Down Payment and Equity in house after closing. -- House down the road same design but not updated went for 352,000 (Port Jefferson Station, NY)So with the market where it is and mortgage rates getting lower I see it as an opportunity to jump on a low rate.

Is it normal for commercial lenders, particular alternative funding firms, to require a non refundable deposit for appraisals, inspections and multi phase studies?