With the issues with international trade the company has taken a serious financial hit.

Are there any tricks of the trade???

Willing to trade other valuables as part of down or as part of purchase price if that is an option to you (i.e. other real estate, gold, coins, silver, stocks bonds...

- general trading principles- what will the business actually be doingWho puts what in?

Are there any consequences?

And before you judge what kind of person I am and the others that are posting, just know that I own 2 very successful businesses (one in real estate and one in the trades) and yes I have turned $1000.00 into 1.5 million in six years.

Sometime during the exchange period he could take cash from outside the exchange and trade it for the note. 

They aren't capital losses, they are losses from short term stock trades.

As much as we're interested in having the work done, I'm very much interested in working with the Handy Man/Contractor and learning the trade so to speak.Are there any good local recommendations for what we're trying to accomplish?

The many problems with Arbitrage have been beaten to death over the last few months. in trading Commodities or futures, leveraged equities, there's something called the risk of ruin.