All I will say is that I don't reveal that kind of info on a public forum, but REI has treated me very well.

I again do not love the fact that the lease treats these damages as liquidated damages.Now if you and your attorney had the chance to review such risks and thought they were minimal, that's of course perfectly fine.

The quality of people that work with you, how to treat your customers (tenants), structure of your leases, quality of your product, etc...there is a lot more, but this should help get you started.This framework (below) will help you develope your strategy:This graphic is from Gary Eldred's "Make Money with Small Income Properties".  

This is a business and we have to treat it that way. 

I assumed they're both treated the same. 

Treating previously depreciating expenses as operating expenses is a huge tax benefit NOW vs. keeping track and spreading it out over the long term!

In this area they are involved with the vast majority of available property, should I treat them as a friend and asset or try to work around them (which makes me feels shady just writing it)Thank you for any feedback! 

Are you treating the money from the investor as a loan, or as a contribution of capital?  

But if you're really treating it as a range, I would calculate as the lower number.  

It's a loft condo, 780 sq. feet, and totally open space with 14 foot ceilings and a really nice feel to it (it's in a 2006 re-modeled old Boston chocolate factory).