I'm in the UK medium term barring total economic meltdown from Brexit should that occur, so the tax situation is what it is for me until I make it big enough to pay the non dom fee perhaps

This why vetting upfront is so important.On the other hand, a larger contractor may have real assets in the company or even a reputation that they want to protect so they want to find away to avoid getting into legals which waste time and money for them.With respect to contract size, in reality anything under 100K is not worth a full blown lawsuit as the legals will eat you alive even if you win; small claims court may be your best bet if you are OK managing the process or maybe using a paralegal.On the emotional side, I strongly urge you to put that aside.

Rather than selling the rehabbed property you will just rent it and refinance it. eg: 1) Purchase distressed property  = 40k cash purchase2) rehab = 50k cash rehab2) Appraised at  = 160k 3 Refinance 80% LTV = 160 X 80% = 128, you take home 128k cash  Your total investment was 90k, so you got your 90k back plus 38k as " profit" that is not taxed.

If you look at total returns = income + capital appreciation, California has most places beat. 

For me it will be totally cash flow based.. run the numbers... in general you will likely get a better return with multi.. on the flip side when it comes time to dispose you will have a broader buyer base for a single family with investors and end users vs usually only investors for multis.. really depends on your plan and goal..

Gosh, I feel totally vulnerable and ignorant now.

So that means, if I want to BRRR this property and get *all* of the cash/hard money/private money/HELOC money that I put in to buy and fix it, then I should not spend more than a total of $120,000.If I don't mind leaving some money on the table, then I could go over $120,000, but the true idea of BRRRR is to get all (or more) of your initial money back at refinance time.If you' don't quite follow this just yet, no worries, just keep reading on BP and listening to podcasts!

I think Hayward is a good bet. 

I would think that would be your best bet.

I didn't mean to imply that there would be.I agree completely that the lightbulbs, etc are totally on the tenant.I just don't want to get Work Orders for every ding they find in a wall.