I do fall clean up, and in winter I go around and clean up all the walk ways and paths that the plow guys dont do for my neighbors.

That was a very straight forward property.

I’ve done this process a lot in Denver which is fairly straight forward...anyone have experience in Lakewood?

We have a 36 bed ALF - Lower income - we figured out how to make money serving a market others do not like to serve -It's been rewarding We have GREAT people/staff now --- People are one of the most important aspectsAs for #'s - it really is a depends question as labor rates vary, state regs are going to vary on how you need to staff etc.Here's the order of our expenses monthly:Wages  (About 40-50% of revenue when we have a good month - fluctuates and this includes my salary which really at any other location may be a management fee etc - but wise to build something in)Principal and interest paymentFood  (When I bought the business Food was higher than P&I but we got it lowered by tweaking some things - I'm sure we could tweak it a little more but I'm not the type that wants to wring every drop of blood out of a turnip - some waste, loss etc is going to happen - I have cooks that take good care of the residents and they are happy which is what I care about)ElectricityAnyways wages by far and away are the largest expense item.I went down this path so am a bit biased I guess - but find a struggling business or an existing one for sale and find a way to buy it and then improve the operations. 

A quick path to structure, discipline and repetition is basically what the questions here are about.Why spend $$ re-developing ways of doing something when you can acquire the same knowledge for $18.00 ?

The answer is because that's the career path they chose.

If its all straight forward and all infrastructure is in place then your looking at site plan modifications, proposed construction survey for each building, grading and foundation staking, elevation certificates and final as built surveys.Depending on local requirements and existing conditions i would say $30-$50k

There are a lot of things to consider when choosing which path to take, and most of them are obvious and straightforward, like taxes, financing vs cash, timelines, and overall long-term vs short-term strategies. 

I get the terminology but still dont the confidence in taking that path.

I am straight forward to the point with no fluff.