@Kendrick Salazar If you are arranging contractors' work on multiple projects, for not-your-own-home, you may want to check with the Contractor Registration Board or your real estate attorney because I think there is a good chance you may be required to register as a contractor (see CRB FAQ and RIGL 5-65-3).Someone from the CRB spoke to the RI Association of Realtors last summer and, I was told by a good friend who attended, pretty much said that in the situation you described, the person doing the arranging of various contractors' work would absolutely be required to be a registered contractor.That is secondhand information and you're welcome to take this advice or leave it of course, but my impression was that the state takes contractor registration seriously so I'd strongly urge you to consult with your real estate attorney or with the CRB itself before you start arranging work on your next job.

Any chance anyone could break down this sentence so a 5-year-old could understand it?

Maybe for a nominal cost an attorney could review the agreement you signed. https://www.rocketlawyer.com/plans-pricing.rl#/If the conclusion is the same that there is no chance of recovering the money then at some point you really have to chalk it up to a learning experience.There are people on this board that have lost 4,5,6 figures before.

You might be surprised how many people would jump at the chance to own, instead of rent, for the same price.

I agree that the (same' ole) traditional approaches will reap the same results, so I'm hoping to 'disrupt' the industry's apple cart a bit here by making more intelligent inroads by targeting more 'desirable' clientele, so if by chance this sounds intriguing to anyone potentially interested in investing in a scaleable (online based) alternative to 'business as usual...'

The one I've been analyzing is in between three universities and right down the road from the arsenal and the research park here in Huntsville.I got a chance to talk one on one with the owner who lived there after I walked through the property and took pictures.

I gave the tenant two months notice but the tenant hadn't looked for a place and it seems tenang wants to take a chance with a new landlord.

Fix up cost was about $15K  My private lender came through with $225K loan.I did give some of the hard money lenders a chance, but their term sheets were terrible.

Depending on what the layout of the building is, there is a good chance that smoke and water could have damaged much more than what is visible and sitting empty for that long can be difficult to for mold and pest reasons.If the damage only affected one or two units it may be easier to put at least a few of the lesser damaged ones into service quickly. 

If you can only purchase in a while don't get too attached to any deal.Germantown is the Shangri-La for most investors so the actual chance of getting any reasonable deal there unless you have fantastic connections is slim to none.