As I studied earlier, the first thing you should do is marketing, then get a call and do a property analysis to understand if it's profitable for you, then meet with the seller and sign all the necessary papers, then if there is a debt in the bank we do a reinstatement quote, then do a title search to check if there are any hidden debts, if everything is fine we look for an investor or flipper and sign an assignment of contract with him and wait for closing to get our money.

Quote from @Robert Bishop: Quote from @Jonathan Greene: You are off to a great start, but a post like this is just a bat signal for anyone and everyone to pitch you something because you have saved so much at such a young age.

So, we require a nonrefundable Retainer Fee for 90 days of our time to find a rental property.

Boot includes any cash retained or the difference if the replacement property is of lower value than the relinquished property.

Seller retains full ownership. 

For example, for any lease-related activities (negotiating terms/pricing, signing lease, etc.) could I just have a real estate attorney on retainer to do these activities? 

Hey @Chi Lo - I actually have a video on my YouTube page about this (lookup ClosedByMo on YouTube).Regarding walls being damp and waterproofed, it means there needs to be waterproofing on the basement retainer walls (this is something you can do post-construction and the contractors would need to dig around the house exposing the basement/foundation to apply the waterproofing). 

This signals long-term appreciation potential.

I am also going through the eviction process in Winston-Salem called a bunch of attorneys and yeah they want crazy retainers however I was referred to one where there was a $300.00 hour phone consultation.

Is it better to pay cash or leverage my liquidity to maximize ROI while retaining flexibility?