We fought with Quickbooks for years.

Or are the lenders wanting to see a full year of them on your taxes before they'll count the income?

Some places (Cook county, Illinois, some big cities) forbid using criminal records (including felonies) over X years old, so you may not be able to deny just on a criminal record. 

And, even if you could find an appraiser to do an evaluation, it's not clear how that would help you.As you state, the motel has been shut down for nearly three years, so there's no current financial data.But even if you had recent numbers, you're planning to operate it as a sober living facility, which I suspect is a very different business model.You need to find a comparable facility in or near your local market and develop your own customized financial analysis model based upon this particular property.Then, given your business objectives (cash flow and cash-on-cash return, I assume), you'll need to back into what purchase terms you'll need to achieve those objectives.Only then will you be able to determine whether these seller financing terms will work.As far as documentation to get started, a letter of intent (LOI) is commonly used but you might move straight to a purchase and sale agreement, particularly if no agent is involved.Whichever path you choose, just be certain to give yourself plenty of time to thoroughly perform your due-diligence.

I was reading a report and an "expert" was predicting 1.5 next year.

The last time I did an apartment rehab was over 5 years ago, pre-covid for sure.

You can double your money in one year if your property appreciates only 5%. 

Over a 2 year lease that's almost $15k which is pretty significant.

Here's a link to the CSLB license check.https://www.cslb.ca.gov/OnlineServices/CheckLicenseII/CheckL..One thing though...in my 33 years of contracting, I've had dozens of illegal permits pulled under my number leading to major problems.

I have been managing my 5 cabins in Sevier County for 3 years now.