It seems like there's a lot of variability in the category but I'd appreciate any experience this community would be willing to share!

While reading is always great I wanted to share the advise that I got early on in trying to break into commercial (not that I've been successful breaking into that category but I like to think I'm on the way). 

Is there a software out there that you use or recommend to enter all of the expenses into that will help with totaling all the expenses accurately into proper categories for year end tax stuff or by each project?   

If you can mange to get even a little of his advisory time; it's worth it's weight in gold. 

US companies added 184,000 jobs across most job categories and wages rose, the most since July.

So add 0.25-0.5% for a high LTV, another 0.625% for 2-4 unit and 1.0% for high balance (I assume this falls into the high balance category) and you're right around the rate you were quoted. 

So there are a few ways to look at this, the 1st question is are you sure your renovation’s will double the property value, most renovations on primary residences, your lucky to get 60-70% of the dollar cost back out upon sale, so really nail down your comps, than you have basically a math problem if your rate on your primary goes up how long if ever before that extra payment is more than 400k in taxes, that’s just a simple calculation to help you decide, but I suspect you actually have a different question here, from a purely financial perspective my guess is the best option is to do anything to avoid that tax hit, but one of the reasons to make money is to spend it on things that you enjoy, based on your overall financial picture and a subjective view of how much enjoyment you will get out of a renovated home, you should decide if you want to roll your profit into another deal or “cash-out” your winnings, I love cars and I’m willing to spend more than is fiscally smart on them because they bring me joy, there is nothing wrong with that, but i don’t think it’s a fiscally smart choice, without knowing your exact property id imagine a renovation would fall into that category, so that’s the terms I would use to decide.

I'd definitely take a look at those Wholesaling categories and identify some individuals that you'd like to mentor/partner with and see if theres any way you can provide value and/or just reach out to them and ask!

Real Estate.How about if we leave it at this:For those of you whose goal is to preserve the integrity of the appraisal process, do what Bill and Real Estate suggest.For those of you whose goal is to get your appraisals to come in higher, follow my advice in the original post above.No, that's putting my comments in the wrong category, my comments are not about the integrity of the appraisal at all.My suggestion really is not that opposed to what you feel is an important approach at all.

Here's a snippet from our starter course on becoming a Local Real Estate Developer and it will help you understand where the value comes into a development project to see how to weight the equity and deal terms based on the experience of the partners in the deal.