Everyone needs an expert if they are in this career for more than a minute. Initial project reviews help to show you some road blocks and problems you will face, this will save you a ton of money figuring out before you sign.

• Project planning and proformas can really give a huge return on investment in both the short term and long term maintenance of a project.
• Site visits can reassure you and save you: city and county inspectors only check for code violations. They aren't interested in material quality or application quality for everything else.
• We have all found ourselves in a dispute. Nothing different in this world. Conflict resolution and litigation avoidance is vital to the success of any project. Once it gets into the hands of lawyers, its all a mess and something I would prefer to avoid than to participate as an expert witness.
• Of course a big part of all this is the documentation. Documenting every aspect of a project is really important to avoiding additional problems that can easily be avoided if properly planned and documented. From agreement to release of lien and even reviewing comparables; verify the facts of the deal.

I see people ALL THE TIME ruining their chances of success by being greedy. If you want to be an "investor" than it requires paying experts, good money, to do expert work. That's the "secret" to sitting on a beach. If you want to be a control freak and keep every dime you can excuse yourself from paying a pro...then just admit you want to be a real estate agent, an inspector, a designer, a contractor, a real estate agent, a landlord, a property manager, a project manager, and you don't trust anyone to ever handle anything for you.

But keep in mind, thats the exact opposite way that wealthy people do literally everything.