We have a large amount of "Snowbirds", people looking to escape our miserable winters in a much more tolerable climate (think Florida,Arizona etc) and when I tell these people that they can stay in a beautiful condo for literally a quarter of the price they would pay in many of our cities they jump on the opportunity.

Having that perspective of the worst real estate situations from a law enforcement perspective will likely aid your judgement and tolerance of investing opportunities in the near future.

We should not, however, forget that "Doing whatever you need to do to get deals done" is what causes real estate train wrecks.I would think that with all the consumer protection laws that have come into play in the residential real estate marketplace that this kind of fudged-appraising would not be tolerated.

I can appreciate the resolve and risk tolerance to invest halfway across the country.

Maybe they have a high degree of risk tolerance.

And for the record, this site is totally F'N amazing and that's the other reason it's grown so much.Before everybody gets too upset with me, please just understand that I'm only making the point to truly know your own circumstances, capabilities, risk tolerance, back up plan, local market, and a whole myriad of other things.

You will need to take that into your analysis and balance that against your risk tolerance.  

You could buy the house before you arrive (depending on your risk tolerance).

(although you can lower the tax bill with smart dividend usage).Insurance can replace the protection of a corporation to a limited extent, but you should sit down with a California attorney to discuss those issues (you can incorporate yourself)Starting an LLC isn't that difficult but it all depends on your risk tolerance.

If this were in a typical lower income working class neighborhood with tolerable crime statistics, vs. a more affluent area that this appears to be, I would probably lower my offer considerably.