The reality is you'll never be "ready".  

They need a reality check.

Many "older gentleman" pretend like they are looking for an out to simplify their life, but in reality, they're looking for a mark to take to the cleaners.

Usually (no offense to architects, I am an engineer also) architects dream on the most beautiful design they could ever draw, or at least something close to it, but we as contractors need to poke their heads to bring them to reality -both architectural drafts and dream finishes-, the dream drawing is simply what it is on paper, but when you start to put dollar values to it, either the deal is not a deal, or you hire someone to make the deal happen.

In reality you are not positive cash flow.

For example, you could say that you bought a parcel for $1000 and sold it for $3000 therefore you made a whopping 300% return, and you'd be right, but in reality you did both sides of a deal for $2000 which if you seller financed would take years to actually put in your pocket.

Its not till the formal process starts that reality sets in.Try- I am looking to buy another house and saw potential in yours?

(NOI (expenses) is accurate, no out of ordinary major cap expenses, etc)  To Chis's point, I would think most financials on loopnet are off a bit from reality.  

They are also a for profit enterprise and make more money if they charge you for replacement cost vs actual cash value.The reality is you are way more likely to have a partial loss than a total loss.

What I do is, I get their budget and tell them what can be done with that budget, sort of reverse engineer the budget and bring them to reality, I believe this is the best way a win-win situation can work.