If you're looking to get into an investment property, I'd be thinking about evaluating your 2nd property with your nephew separately (ie: what to do there, is the property producing income like you want, its long term appreciation prospects, etc)Hope that helps....

The key for me is to use LTR income as my evaluation for the the project and if I can beat that with STR, why not.I don't see how hard money lending is any more risky that conventional financing, yes the rates are higher but the result is the same if you default. 

I can evaluate properties quickly and won’t waste your time.

@Trevor Schuler consult an architect or structural engineer to evaluate the plans and structure to see what changes need to be made to bring the house up to code.

From there you'll need to learn how to evaluate managers/sponsors of those types of assets.

Get a settlement extension of 1 to 2 weeks to give you time to evaluate leak.

We've done a few drive-by's in desired areas but beyond that, most online listings seem to be a bit overpriced for our evaluations. 

Evaluate your deals as the cash flow today and proceed.

Before I went through the process of hiring a contractor to evaluate and price out, acquire drawings and talk with the building department.

An FHA home appraisal is different from one where a conventional loan is being used, because it includes a property evaluation.