@Dave LeeDave, If you are 2hours away from the jobsite, T&M would not be efficient for you. 

OPM is what makes it in this business, thats Other Peoples Money. credit. if you don't have it, get it. if your credit is shot, fix it. go to www.annualcreditreport.com and work on improving that credit score. its free. and watch the podcasts here on BP. education helps, but it can slow you down. you have to jump in and jump the hurdles that you can and knock down those that you cannot. no on ever learned anything without getting started and failing a time or two. think of all the great inventions created in the last 200 years. not one of them was a success without first figuring out how NOT to do it. good luck to you

In those 65 years, you are welcome to lease out the building and make improvements (depending on what the ground lease says), and collect revenue.  

Victoria Wow, thank you so much for the positive energy!

Purchase @ a discount, improve the property,  then hold.  

South of 95 has a few up and coming spots for sure but there are still some areas that are not seeing much improvement.

Talking is a waste of your energy.

We are all from different places and it never hurts to share best practices with each other just to see how we could improve in our daily operations.I know you don't have to do this but I truly appreciate it. 

They wanted us to over-improve for the value of the house.  

Definitely a fixer upper, like $25/foot for interior, exterior, landscaping, asphalt improvement.