You might be successful in small claims if it's a small amount because you can easily spend $3,000 in attorneys fees to recover your $3,000.

I know prices have recovered or even surpassed the bubble prices from 2006 in most areas, but supply is still limited throughout.   

The money you spend on doing this might be recovered in one or two years compared to the increased insurance premium.  

I lost the license about 30 years later while I was recovering from an illness and my wife did not know what to do.  

But with the returns and prices available, there's a little time to recover from a bad one if you accidentally get stuck with one.I live in LA and have always bought out-of-state for the same price/returns reason.

Housing prices haven't "recovered" they've "reflated".

You could certainly document serious costs and try to recover in small claims court, but outside of that you really just needed to be sure that your monthly expenses were low enough that you could afford to make repairs as needed.

I'm still recovering from some of the financial issues I incurred back then.

You're heading in a good direction if you like excitement PLUS you're young enough to recover from any mistakes.Best to you.

I know our area hasn't fully recovered since the crash and many houses are still upside down even though this is rapidly changing.