He responded by getting a guy from 120 miles away who had been an arhborist for 6 months at the time (mind you we live in a major city, there are dozens of arbhorists within a few miles of us...he was shopping for someone who was purely new and would say anything for business IMO) to illegally trespass on my property to assess the tree.

***While I am getting my sales agent license (taking the test in a week) for the pure sake of access to numbers, I still want to invest in properties while helping out families along the way.

Just pure dollars, With the savings of 1330/month but the loss of 2 hours per day that equates to about $30/hour.

I'm looking to diversify from a pure equity portfolio and go into real estate.

You will also spend about $100/m on HOA for that.If you are looking for purely rental property, you could grab a nice SFH in north east Raleigh for about 180k and get $1400/mo on rent with no HOA.

I'm sure plenty feel justified in doing it because they know of other fraud in the system, some just pure greed. 

Is it purely price driven or is there something about the area that appeals more to you as an investor and your tenants as renters?  

These gains in home sales activity are being driven by pure demand."

(These numbers are purely imaginary, but you get the point -- it's a basic risk/return analysis).b) Potential Stick: If you execute a purchase and sale agreement, you may be exposed to legal risk that could cost you far more than the money you spent on the option contract.The above is strictly for informational and discussion purposes and is NOT a recommendation for you to take any particular action.    

I've been leaning that direction purely because I have a small HELOC as part of a loan too so by selling I can utilize the 50K difference toward a multi-family dwelling instead.