A larger and nicer personal residence costs you more money, so it works against building wealth.There are people who live in the back of a van in a parking lot.

Do a couple of deals with normal timing, pay the lender back, then share the bank owned scenario with them, they might want to partner with you.And in the 17 years of doing business, I have never had a private lender ask for a credit report, an appraisal or an inspection, they did, however, want to see before and after photos and profit and loss sheets of deals I have done (a few of them anyway) Once you build up a reputation of doing deals and using private money, you can get funding fairly easily for regular closings and build a track record with those lenders and they might fund instantly at the courthouse steps

The other 2 STRs have been converted back into long term rentals and although the gross revenue is less, the net profit is pretty darn close.

If you are dealing in retail or larger commercial projects, a NY attorney should be able to help you as long as they have what we call a "local counsel" consultant or a member of their firm with some knowledge in that State, which most commercial lawyers do.

One thing I do note in it that out of the area people might not be familiar with is that Montgomery County is the largest jurisdiction in the area by far at about 50% larger than DC itself. 

Do I need to adjust my expectations of what kind of profit I want for the risk, or am I just way overestimating my costs?

The nearby 20-room hotel, Hotel Playa Cambutal, is continually booked for weeks at a time.Included with he purchase of Teyuna Highlands are three beachfront lots situated at Punta Horcones, which lies less than a mile down the road from the larger property.

Run a couple scenarios, and if knocking down the house and rebuilding is the most profitable (with an acceptable level of risk), go for it.As for knocking it down yourself, if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't

Don't we lose profit when we keep refinancing to the bank fees?

My wife and I want a larger home for our family to expand.