I'm wondering if there is any advise out there on what I could have done to avoid some of these fees, or if this is just standard for REOs and simply need to be accounted for in my numbers?

It occurred to me that a couple of years ago I created a bathroom in a lake house we had and I had to put in a rear discharge toilet (sounds redundant) to avoid cutting into the slab by drilling a hole through a cinder block wall. 

The hard money lender will also be doing the paper work etc. so you just shadow that as well.recommend that you fund 100% of the deal and avoid for your first time a co Beneficiary transaction.. ( which is basically what crowd funding is  IE bringing a bunch of small investors into one loan)...

The department I work for will strip the home of roofing and certain other fixtures and arrange a dumpster to be hauled off as a way to decrease unnecessary smoke products. 

Then I could avoid moving right now, and put my own cost of living towards paying down this property.I want to explore option 3) more.What are the CONs to option 3?

A court may call "BS" on you and treat the corporation as an attempt to avoid liability, which it is.

Alex, it is probably a contract issue you might look at with the pm if you want that in your agreement, and it may not be a great practice for the pm to do this , especially if you use a pm to avoid this very issue and have anonymity.

I'd say the biggest fear is softening up; not sticking to your guns when you know the right thing to do, but due to apathy, avoidance of conflict, etc not doing it. 

My concerns are 1) what neighborhoods should I look to buy in my area and what neighborhoods to avoid?

i dont even get chance to present my offer and the deals already shows subject to bank approval.what should i do, sometimes i get back something owner has accpet the offer and now just wait for bank approval .... this happens to me almost 80% of the time i see a short sale.what should i do in future with short sale deal, what is the safest way to present my offer to avoid listing agent kill my deal?