With the entity piercing the corporate veil is possible but usually an entity creation makes people go away more as they want the low picking fruit (no asset protection).

It means the current owner is not the best manager, and there is clear low-hanging fruit to manage the property better in order to make more money.e.g.

No risk, no profit on the deal and we learn everything from soup to nuts about flipping, but we pay her $5K for the education.The numbers on the deal are "okay" (now that we have used BP's calculators after the fact)  We could potentially make a total of $35K ($25K for her and $10K for us) or make $20K ($20K for her, having to do a 2nd deal to pay her the rest) and nothing for us.Worse case scenario, we are out $5K for our "education".Any advice?

If you plan to keep it, I suggest planting fruit or nut bearing trees on it or timber.

When it comes to the nuts and bolts of real properties we would love to answer any questions you might have.  

On the other hand, coming from outside the agent world, in your world you know of people who need to buy or sell, and thus at least there is the promise of bringing in clients that might have otherwise gone elsewhere.That's a tough nut to crack.

SoCal can be a tough nut to crack for us newbies.A couple years ago I mailed out lots of letters to homeowners in LA County with no luck.

But given the heightened competition I'm branching out into auction to find deals this year... and it appears to be bearing some fruit as long as this home is not a complete train wreck when I finally get to see it.

Later on, as you have acquired more, I would lean back a bit and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

The failure rate for small businesses is huge.If you are interested in a restaurant, motel, or other small business, I suggest that you get down to your local junior college and sign up for some small business classes.SBA used to offer some really super nuts and bolts small business classes.