For clarities sake, i'm looking for material that's written by an academia (preferably by a PhD), or someone with significant experience, and a proven track record.

I wound up preparing all of my information — printed and digital copies of all the requisite materials and a few potential properties to discuss my goals.

When I was exploring the residential sector, I have approached a client somewhere along the lines of: I would give you a detailed bid, complete with labor and material bids separate, line by line, trade by trade, in return, I would ask for your honest opinion about my bid, and where I was low or high or ridiculous.

I'm going to look for foundation issues, mold, water damage, fire damage, roof, age of materials, etc etc. 

These can be easily purchased for $300 or less depending on the size and material desired.12.)

And those small things don't really make anything close to a material difference on how the property performs, it's just a bit of my OCD nature. 

I usually pay my GC for material upfront (I understand they have a tight ash flow too), and I pay them after completion of the work.

I've used lines of credit, credit card advances, credit cards for materials, personal loans, big seller credits, and combinations thereof.... and equity partners when the deals were too big for the other methods. 

If you replace one of the plywood floor panels with original material it will be about $800 per 4 x 8 sheet. 

If you don't know what it is, treat it as a hazardous material, you might not want to know as you'd need to call in a professional bunch to remove it!