Have you thought about going into sales?

@Ronnie GalindoIf you can wait another year, look into Internal Revenue Code Section 121 - exclude the gain from sale of your principal residence under certain circumstances. 

Hi all,There are many reputable companies who will list properties (for sale) on realtor.ca for a flat fee without the use of an agent, hence saving commissions, but I haven't been able to find anyone reputable for leases. 

You can clearly spell out, in the articles, who owns what share of the company, how proceeds from sales/revenue are distributed, and it eliminates the potential for someone trying to "switch the percentages" down the road so to speak, because it is a formal legal structure. 

Honestly, it's too bad that the operating part of your dad's business does not carry with it some residual value of some sort with regards to that commanding a sale price.My hunch would be that this would be far too risky to embark on as a first go of things.Especially, from what you're mentioning this may have a large impact on the quality of your dad's retirement.If you have the funds and can structure something, the place to start would be to engage with an A/E firm to get a cost estimate generated for a concept building like you're mentioning. 

And it looks like I can raise the roof some, so installing a loft will add another 50+ feet of interior space.In general though, I'm not buying anything in California, I'm actually trying to ready a couple of my places here in San Diego for sale, this was a one-time event, and in the end, the seller is dragging his feet not, it might not even happen lol...

@Leland Smith I kind of second what @Gary Siver said........ sometimes there are contractors that aren't licensed that do better work and are more reliable than licensed, that being said that's not all that i would worry about....If you are doing any structural work, I would recommend you get someone licensed that can pull the permits or pull them yourself if they let you (its just better when you can justify at sale all the work was permitted and for tax purposes, you can have records of money that was paid out) .....

As long as you have a qualified intermediary in place before the sale of your investment real estate and are careful to follow the 6 requirements for a 1031 exchange (http://www.the1031investor.com/6-requirements-for-carrying-out-a-1031/) everything should go smoothly.

You generally always want the seller out at closing, but they may need the money from the sale to move, so delaying the closing may not help.Yes, you need to set up an agreement/lease but have a much larger hold back from escrow, say an extra $10k or so, above the one month rental.

We are planning on getting it up for sale in the next month and are looking to do more investing.