The 3 most common reasons to be exempt are being a nonprofit,  reselling the item, or if it's a consumable used during the manufacturing process.

We do a mix of buy & hold and buy & resell to out of state and overseas investors, mostly single families in the $90,000 - $120,000 range.

I plan on putting in an estimated $15-20k to do some needed, however superficial, cosmetic improvements to the place that in turn will hopefully add to its value when I choose to resell it.

Let's say you are lucky enough not to have to put any money in the property and you are able to quickly resell the property.

You mentioned the property had a rather unique layout, combined with the fact that it generated little interest on the mls with paying occupying tenants, what would you say the property will need for you to resell it?

Condo: Strictly cashflow opportunitiesSFR: Cash flow with the hope of strong future resell value.

My boss at work is considering buying empty lots and having a foundation poured for a house/building then reselling as is.

At 90% loan to value, just the time value of money and expenses of foreclosure and listing with an agent to resell after forclosure would put them in the hole even if they nailed every other aspect of the property. 

First if it's an REO with multiple offers you can forget the wholesaling stuff.If you have cash to buy it and want to buy it either to close and then resell later or hold as a rental after rehab then you can throw your hat in the ring with an offer.Throw the numbers from a year ago out the window.

Wholesalers buy or contract for houses and then quickly resell them to other investors.