I'm just looking for a way to essentially back up my numbers if I do give him a buyout number 

So now my question is can does the number of days held start from when i bought the burnt down home and essentially if i wait till August then i can claim its as Long Term Capital Gain or does it start from when the New Construction is completed and i have to wait a full year from then to claim Long Term Capital Gain benefit ( which i wont)Your input will be much appreciated.

@Zachary Fix You don't get an easement by prescription simply by the passage of time... you actually need to prove all of the elements in court by quieting title and getting a court order.

One of the key elements of real estate investment, is the process of finding deals.

The Grotes do a good job: https://www.ibuyaustinhouses.com/So do signature home buyers: http://www.signaturehomebuyers.com/sell-a-home/ The website is a formula that has to be assembled...there are a million of these sites out there...you just have to get firm on the elements you want to incorporate.

With a fourplex you are essentially buying twice the property (# of units) for the same price, so something has to give in terms of quality.But this seems to be more a lender-based question than a "How do I find the right property?"

Doesn't quite work out to be a wash because CA usually has higher tax rates so if you earned $2,000 in SC you probably paid a much lower rate... say $50 in taxes but in CA the tax on $2,000 is probably more like $180, but you would only get a credit for $50 so CA still essentially taxes that $2,000 in some fashion. 

If you had to choose 5 essential skills as an investor or just business in general, what would they be?

., a rental house put into service on October 1 only seemed to get me 25% of the regular depreciation credit for that year.The property I bought this year went into service at the beginning of July so essentially 6 months of this year.

The main reason for the disconnect between value and income was that appraisers only used comps from within the development, which essentially meant that unless buyers were willing to overequitize their purchase, it was very difficult for the appraised values to keep up with the 4-6% rent growth the development had seen in recent years.He told me that while the 3BR I was looking at would definitely cash flow, the real disconnect was on the 5BRs.