I suggest this approach because she MAY pay …instead of her leaving and then trying to get her to pay or collect after the fact, which is always more difficult.

My company has been doing residential Spec builds in Austin for the past 6 years or so and recently got into doing Custom builds, an architect we have worked with in the past approached us and basically he wants us to build a house he's already designed for his clients, (we are still in the process of meeting with them and doing estimates etc.), we verbally agreed on a 20% GC fee over construction costs, but I have a feeling he will want to split this 20% fee with us somehow as he tried to do something similar a few years ago in a project that didnt end up happening (he wanted to split the 20% in half between us) which we didnt think that agreement was fair at the time.

Approach the tenant with a form of value. 

I believe this approach will enable you to make the right decisions today....Eric

I like Jerry Nortan's approach on multiple fronts. #1 getting deals is about making lots of offers and its a numbers game and offers have contingecies.

I found mine and then applied the cookie cutter approach.  

Neither approach is without problems, both have advantages and disadvantages.

What is the best approach to maximize future cash flow while minimizing income taxes.Where Is the Best Place to Invest?

If you're the "hey my lazy arse wants to spend that last few decades of life mucking about and bird watching," that's the model match for this approach. 

On the commercial side I used real capital analytics (RCA) which was super reliable....is there an equivalent on the resi side?