Those of you who know all about this kind of stuff might consider that a waste of time; I don't know. . . but nothing venture is nothing gained.

Kitchens and baths rent and sell houses....I would not waste the money to expand the existing bedrooms.Do you have any pictures?

You have to really analyze where the project could go bad and have contingencies in place in case you run up against them - i.e. the house doesn't sell, you have unexpected costs during projects, what the SOW of the project will entail, what your marketing costs are (his wife as an agent will help minimize these costs), what if something unforeseen happens and you cant finish project, whos name the house will be under, and that might determine who will be able to pull permits if needed, etc.Anyway, you should spend A LOT of time going over "what ifs" and sit down with your attorney and pound out these details.

Odds are you will lose her $1k pretty quick or have minimal returns at best.

And it's a waste of your time too, so don't begrudge them for this.One approach I've seen folks be successful with:Find that sweet spot where the property is juuuuuuuuust good enough to actually be financed. 

. - Yeah both of our flips (our first and our current) have been through courthouse auctions.The advantage to them is that its a limited crowd unlike the online auction sites, so you can get some deals (we had around a 100k profit on our first deal) but the disadvantages are (1) most auctions are fruitless so you waste a lot of time going for nothing, and (2) you dont get to see inside the property before the auction - so there can be some ugly surprises.Depending on your market and the competitiveness it may or may not be your cup of tea

Well, needless to say, we're at a standstill since there's a 12 month seasoning period for land contracts at which point i can only take out a small amount of money (my very minimal rehab costs if I'm not mistaken?).

That's an incorrect assumption but it's a waste of time to try and convince people new to the business so take it for what it's worth.

Looking for wholesalers that have real deals with no ARV's and rehab cost so off it's a waste of time and effort!!

Put in good products and do regular inspections and twice a year HVAC servicing and you will minimize issues.3) This is taken directly from my lease.