Markets are unpredictable, so it is hard to speculate what something will be in the future.

Contractors get screwed very often by these kinds of agreements, and investors get screwed very often too.There's a place and a time for T&M... it's on unique projects with deep pockets and totally unpredictable outcomes.

My brother sold another home in the area - listed it for $969k based on comps and before the open house even took place had an offer for $1.1M.The house is in such need of getting fixed up I get concerned that offers will be a little bit more unpredictable....

As long as this also happens, expect price adjustments to be somewhat unpredictable.

The rest is personal, and there's no tax reason to do it in advance of moving in.One more consideration: life is unpredictable.

Appreciation is too unpredictable. 

Still, the move raises worries about encouraging homeowners to borrow more based on the unpredictable tourism industry."

That's an additional level of unpredictability/time drain to factor.All of that said, have you looked into out-of-state turnkeys?

I DO want to say that I don't factor in appreciation potential or equity gains from mortgage paydown-- I do a very simple COC calculation and if THAT'S good--so is all the rest (except the ever-unpredictable appreciation factor).

The more you accept unpredictable variables into your risk equations, the more careless your risks become.I'm not dissuading any of the creative methods of financing.