@Georges Arnaout You are missing a couple of parts, if you want to step in to grey areas about verbal conversations, and he would admit it in court, then you have a little leverage, what your solid legal ground right now is the contract which @Aaron McGinnis explained to you.

I had a similar issue with finding insurance for my house during the rehab phase of a 203k loan.

My equity and cash flow today is directly correlated to the people that I've leveraged in Indy, the only thing I brought to the table was trust and grit to get through the tough times.I'd suggest you do it the way I did it (since you're a seasoned investor), start from ground up, learn the ropes in that market and don't do the turnkey route.

I have considered a VA but I think that's going to be in the next phase of business.

If you are okay with living in the duplex, let it season some, and, as mentioned, keep saving up for the down payment on the next one while studying the market and expanding your landlording skills--both on the ground with the duplex and with books (I have a Classics of Landlord Lit" blog post, but you may have burned through the core reading). 

Real estate is years of blood, sweat, and tears before the "passive income" phase kicks in.

@Marvin Michel I love this idea of traveling to potential markets and getting your "boots on the ground", Have you already made this trip?

Here's the scenario: I've got a property lined up for housing development, but the planning process is probably going to take 2+ years before breaking ground.

We are fortunate that nature gas does go by the house and we plan to connect to that when the ground thaws.

You burn crude oil in a variety of forms, drilled out of the ground by a big, bad corporation.