I know I missed out on quite a few properties by limiting my scope so much.

But the property would NOT rent at 1% of purchase price, unless I bought a crack house and flipped the hell out of it (perhaps wise, but I know my limits)Due to travel time to work, I'd HAVE to purchase near Stockton: Lodi, Manteca, perhaps Elk Grove.

Silver Sands is amazing, such a beautiful park.Madison, Old Saybrook, and Mystic come up often, all beautiful, but limited options.   

With your limited construction experience, I'd either bring on a construction manager or as I mentioned (and prefer) include administration services with your chosen architect. 

The Tenant has to sign it and accept the charges or they can refuse to sign and take you to court to contest the charges.Unfortunately, your friend did not create a list so you will have to refund the deposit and eat the loss.

Split the down payment and make two smaller down payments on two separate houses, a year apart (I think that's the limitation on FHA loans).

So the reality is if you buy a property for $100K and sell it for $100K a few years later you will have a loss on the order of $10K because of the purchase and selling costs.

So, if we sold now, it would be for a slight loss.

I recently purchased a home in a small town within it's city limits.

That in turn limits me to about 1-3 deals a year while I wait for equity to build.