It's just lower income, hard working people who can't get ahead enough to actually purchase a property.

As a contractor in South Florida, we structure our rehab and remodel contracts so the client never feels like we are getting ahead of them.

The office has already let me sit in on some of their training classes to get a head start and their commission split is very favorable to agents. 

I have decided to go ahead and allow them to get a dog as I believe it will create a 'home' like environment.

If you were my client I would likely counsel to go ahead before buying and renegotiate to add 5 to 10 more years to the primary term of the lease.

At this point you are likely family with real estate and will look forward to the challenges ahead.  

In the case that they needed materials ahead of time (like fixtures, outlets, etc), I ended up purchasing the materials myself and asking the subcontractors to install them.

Having some private money at 8-12% annually that can be accessed quickly may be more advantageous than working on a deal with traditional financing with a bank/credit union when they want to due a pre-renovation valuation/appraisal and post-renovation valuation/appraisal and then go ahead and set up a draw schedule to align the funding with the project timeline and any inspections of the property... 

Assess the condition and have a heads up as to what might need to be done when they vacate.

That is what I am doing now, looking ahead to see if it will cashflow when both units are rented.