Two years ago when the entire market was red hot most listings in my area required a pre approval or proof of funds with the offer if I remember correctly. 

You can snow ski at Mt Humphreys near Flagstaff one day, and tube the salt river near Phoenix the next - Either very hot, or very cold - not a lot of in between unless you want to live more rural.  

Your location is HOT. 

SNP 500 is super consistent and does well over time, but unless you are a lunatic who's using options ( playing with HOT fire ), you really can't leverage. 

Considering adding a hot tub to my Poconos short-term rental property and wanted to get your thoughts on a few things:1.Patio vs. basement installation for the hot tub?

Don't count on appreciation, even in a seemingly hot market like Florida.

Douglas you seem to be equating the fact that it's easy to sell a newly built high end home in a hot market with how easy/hard it is to build such a home. 

Good for you.We're in Denver and Colorado Springs, mostly, but the housing market is similar along the Front Range ... and by similar, I mean hot.

@Rod Hanks thank you.

Well I am going to rent my in law put for track season and probably get a hot tub to get more interest.