If your AGI is over $100K (whether married filing jointly or single), that $25K special allowance starts phasing out.

Newspaper stapled on one wall of the inside to the outside siding, that was the insulation..the floor was on the ground and uneven, one room was a dirt and brick floor!

Wholesaling is a numbers game; cover as much ground as you can.

All of this and many other factors need to be considered running a restaurant.The biggest issue a one off restaurant faces is food quality and pricing.Small places can't order in massive quantities so do not have long term food contracts locked in at a set price like chains do.Instead food cost fluctuations can hurt a small restaurant plus the quality you get from a supplier might be good one week but the next a new company came in to the food supplier and gave them a cheaper deal to use their product and try it out.The new product may be better,the same, or worse.The problem is you pay the same price and charge the customer the same price as before but it might not taste as good.I don't know how you will buy this restaurant as you have no experience as an owner.You can't just open a restaurant and expect people to come in.A few will but not enough to make a great business.You have to pound the ground and press palms and get the product with free samples into people's mouths.This will generate buzz for your restaurant and create customers with a relationship.Customers are habit creatures.Get them a great experience,great food,decent price and you will get repeat business.

But, you do need to 'have boots on the ground' in your local real estate market.

You have a construction back ground and that is a plus for what is one of the more difficult parts of a rehab process that many have a tough time managing cost effectively.

With your back ground you can do this for sure.

I see that you are in Austin which is a pretty tight market, but being on the ground can give you an advantage over others that are not local.

The other option is to wait until it sells and invest in a different house, but the house is in Indiana, and right now I'm in Seattle and for 50-60K I'd probably be able to buy a hole in the ground!

I suppose I could just leave a burned out shell or hole in the ground and split.