as ways to try to get them talking.It could be that he wants to pack it full of people or a grow op, but it could also be that he wants one bedroom to live in, one for a home office, and one for a guest room or exercise room storage or whatnot.  

Things that I have already considered are PROS• Compare to City of Portland, City of Forest Grove is much developer friendly in term of building new apartment• There will be less hidden physical issues compare to buying an existing property. • No existing tenant issue you need to deal with up front • You create an opportunity yourself VS praying for the right deal to show up every nite• Higher rentCONS• Zero income during the construction which would be about 9 months and another 3 - 6 months to fill the vacancy• I need to pay out of pocket to cover the interest during the development• Anything could happen during the construction phase...find an oil well 6 ft under during excavation• I have enough knowledge to operate an apartment business but never build an apartment before Let me know if I missed anything.

For instance, if I think the house is worth $80k and the mortgage being foreclosed on was taken out 2 years ago for $100k I just stop my analysis there because there is no equity and the lender will buy it back for more than it's worth. 95% of the foreclosed properties in my area still fall into that category so I can quickly narrow down the list.From there I do a physical drive-by.

  Hi @François Gauthier-Drouin, it's really hard to tell something like this from a photo, and also really risky for you to take too much advice from someone like myself who can't actually physically look at the issue; so take what I say as an educated guess, nothing more. 

Moving FWD I will hire more things out because I agree, it's not worth my time (although I do enjoy the physical labor/design/etc of the project).  

They could sell and do the 1031 and then refinance the new property and use those proceeds to pay down the mortgage on the property they already own.It does feel like a wheels spinning exercise if all they want to do is reduce debt overall.  

Buying properties out of state could quickly turn into a nightmare - if A) you don't have the right team in place locally or B) you aren't interested in having a physical presence.  

The physical analysis process for the different types of buildings might be slightly different, but the basic principles apply to all properties. 

You could build a plumbing business and soon phase out of the physical work.

One thing that I would recommend is getting a PO Box to use as your return address if you don't have a physical office.