Writing is my passion and want to make it my profession.

I personally know of one where the sole purpose of it is to hold undeveloped land -- no restrictions on the use of the property; the HOA is there to make sure that certain land is never developed. 

So, you're competing against "the world" at that point.You're actually better off developing ways to find properties which aren't listed yet - pre-foreclosures, probates, divorce, bankruptcy, incarcerations, etc.My $0.02 ...David J Dachtera"Success is not a destination.

Your profession should be the source of all the private money you will need. 

Whats to stop a developer/sponsor from selling the property to himself or another entity controlled by him, at a loss or at break even price?

As for the professional service fees, those appear to be in line with what our development side pays for the design fees of a project.

Our lawyer is concerned the developer may turn out to be a shell corporation that they will close once the house is sold so we have no recourse against them if anything goes wrong.Is it common to require this clause in the contract?

There is a lot of development going on right now, with new condos and luxury student housing.

On one hand, if you want to manage a project such as a flip, you'd probably want to be nearby so you can be there to manage - at least until you've developed enough solid relationships with contractors and such.But, if you want to do turnkeys, you probably won't be able to finance anything in So Cal that would cash flow.

I've expanded my consideration to certain areas of Texas, but I'm focused right now on developing my long term strategy.