Office Space is a great movie. :-)

Dead air space is the best insulator, the more the better.

I just opted out of a REO deal since the bank would not provide access to the crawl space under the home to investigate and estimate the cost to stabilize the settling that was obvious from inside the home.

A 4 unit mixed use (1 commercial space & 3 Studio apartments).

I have limited experience in the real estate space but flipping homes has always been an interest of mine.

If I ever decide to ramp back up the volume then private money is a no brainer.Crowd funding will be an interesting space to watch develop over the next few years.

Or are there much smaller regional REITs that aren't publicly traded that I could become involved in?

If an owner fails to improve or redevelop the property, at some point other action may be taken to adopt the property in the public good, eminent domain may be used.

Option C is spending ~2-3K to purchase furniture/furnishings and store it in a garage we already own and have ample space in.The AVR of the house is ~175K, so we're looking at 1% of the price of the house.

I've read stories of people going through heaven and hell to get the contract and pocket maybe upwards of $10K (which is a big profit in this space as I understand it) fully knowing that the investor they sold it to is going to make at least that and probably a multiple of (not that their job is any easier).For all of that work, and assuming it really is the great deal you are marketing to your investor network, I'm wondering why not see the deal all the way through the flip and maximize your upside and the effort you put in?