The whole point of attending a local REIA meeting was to avoid the sales pitches about courses/materials that over promise and make real estate seem very easy money making deals!

Meaning - in my experience the amoount of CCR required to drive the IRR strictly though cash flow is not likely to materialize due to economic losses.

I should mention I do communication wiring as a day job so I can do this for my time and materials.

It depends a lot on how high between your peaks and valleys if is more than say 1/2", most leveling materials are not design to fill in that much.

Anyone here familiar with the timeline on getting an HPM package home built on the big island?

Other building materials prices have gone up as well. 

Yeah, if "luck" means all the money I socked away when I was working, not taking fancy vacations or buying nice stuff, buying dumps, spending all of my nights and weekends hauling trash and fixing stuff, spending all of my available disposable income paying contractors or buying materials, then working like hell to get decent renters.

Unless the landlord is really cheap and willing to sacrifice vacancy time for cheaper labor/materials cost, then a professional PM should be hiring professional crews to do the work...people where that task is their main job....not some side job that they can do when they get a chance...hell, I can do thatSo....you pay for vacancy time....or you pay for a more professional crew to do it faster...your choice.I'd be shopping for a new PM...... it may be even more important to find a new one BEFORE you go out of country since once you aren't around the current one may get even worse and then you will be trying to deal with issues or find a new one while you are gone.

If there’s equity, and all lien holders can get a full payoff - you have more leverage to ask the bank to postpone the auction to get the bank paid in full.If underwater, going down the route of attempting a short sale can take much longer and the lenders may not be as willing if there is an auction right around the corner.. for example, property must be listed in MLS, homeowners must complete full financial package for lender, bank must complete an appraisal, your offer needs to be reviewed by the bank, etc.Completing a sale right before an auction can definitely be done - and we do it all the time - but I guess it just depends on the specific situation.

It is a quick way to call BS on the broker's package or quickly sniff out a deal.