I know I have a lot more to learn and understand, but I am a quick study and know I will excel.  

I Think I have with the Ideas & Information I've calculated Excellent Deals and Looking for a way to get Pre-Approved Letter from Lender.

I found that area to be an excellent opportunity to create passive income and strong capital gains.Looking forward to connecting with you, who knows maybe even do a deal together!

@Ronald Bourgeois  Excellent advice for a new agent... when I had my shop we were 50 agents so in our market thats little or boutique .. it was not the place really for a new agent.

Would love to see the final product though!  

@Anita Fofie,The challenge I see is that the building may need more to get it back into production than it's worth on the resale market.

The component rule is assuming your assembling a product for sale that you will then collect sales tax on.  

I do most of my work at my desktop with QB or Excel.

I'm pretty certain that the epoxy manufacturer has something to say about that and in what applications their product is suitable.The moisture is possibly vapor (since you didn't mention any flooding), so being trapped by the epoxy floor, it formed bubbles and collected as water.  

Like you as a mortgage underwriter, I have many years of experience being a professional supporting real estate investors as a CPA, but I now wanted to become a real estate investor myself.In late November of last year, like you're doing this November, I wrestled with the question of investing locally with a 4-unit purchased with FHA financing vs. investing out-of-state and got a lot of great advice.Like you, my goal is to retire within the next 10-15 years via real estate investing.As a result of some of the advice I've read through the forums (I would recommend you pay attention to guys who have been in real estate for decades like @Jay Hinrichs rather than the younger folks who are often just pushing their turnkey products) and speaking to investors at local real estate groups, I decided that given my place in life I would be wiser to place my bets on California appreciation over the next 20-30 years rather than investing in some beat-down property in Cleveland for an extra $400 or whatever in cash flow per month.Given the facts that (1) I could get into a property for a measly 3.5% down, which would free up cash to invest in other places if I so chose, (2) I was already throwing away rent every month such that I could still be cash flow negative of $650/month (what I was paying in rent) and still be better off because a portion of my monthly payment would be building my equity and the rest would be tax deductible, and (3) I'm in my 20s and have the time to take a long-term view of appreciation potential, it was a no-brainer to go the FHA 4-plex route in LA, despite the fact that it is one of the most expensive markets in the country.This isn't to say that the process was easy.