OR convince the seller to take back a short term second mortgage (6-8 months) which is junior to your hard money.

Long story short the area was changed to commercial allowing my project to move forward.

He is obviously experienced in real estate, Should I use short and sweet 2 page contracts or the more "legal and professional" standard 7 page contract?

Hey guys.So I am currently in that space where I’ve been reading books and listening to podcasts but I am still about a year away from my first purchase (at least 6 months).To make a long story short, I’m cleaning up a mess a younger me didn’t realize would put a monkey wrench in the plan my current self has created to help me achieve financial freedom.With all the knowledge and experience everyone has been sharing, I’ve been feeling like I wanted to contribute to the community as well.But how does someone with no experience contribute to this wonderful community?

@Basit Siddiqi gives you a good work sheet to figure out your true gain and tax.My thought is that simply selling and paying the tax because you want to move fast is short sighted. 

Long story short: I'm highly interested in pursuing the buy and hold route as a real estate investor, however, trying to buy in my own backyard (Orange County, CA) is a bit of a challenge due to the insane housing costs here.

Today, those Studios rent for $1,900 each.So each apts moved from $500 to $1,900 in 17 years for a increase in rent of $1,400.If you bought a cash flow property outside NYC that was cash flowing $500 per month, but only doubled in the 17 years to $1k per month, you would still be short $400 per month because your rent increased $1,400 versus your outside cash flow property which only increased $1k.I can't emphasize that if you instead bought our place to live here rather than rent, you should think of it as hey, I'm actually doing better than the above scenario of buying outside cash flowing properties!

The long and short of it is that the trust would sell the props and reinvest into other income producing assets, and you could draw income from the trust during your life, and then whatever remains when you pass would go to your chosen charity (or educational institution, they reeeeealllly push this on their wealthy alums, but I like the idea of funding a worthy charity, personally).

You have to sell to earn short term profits and hold some for your long term gains.

I strongly advise that you should always have a conversation to have a mortgage professional vet you with basic information first.I could get into a great length of detail on almost everything I touched base on, but I tried my best to keep this short enough to get to the point.