I take the arbitrage loss as a trade off for emotional ease and I do it with my eyes wide open.If your eyes are open then there's absolutely nothing wrong with spending $226 per month to "buy emotional ease!"  

Fueled mostly by our enjoyment of renovating and turning a dump into a diamond as well as not enjoying the pressure applied by the recession!

Hello Ana,I'm Brandon from RE/MAX in Huntington Beach,CA and we're together in the same boat.I got my license in June and have taken all the basic sales training the brokerage offers but,it's truly a struggle to get started in this business saturated by both new and long time experienced money making agents.I felt the same way about feeling unprepared and still do to a certain extent but,I am working through my jitters with the help of experienced mentors.I got my first listing from a family friend who had a friend with a house that needed remodeling and repairs.I was in no way ready to handle a transaction alone so my mentor took me by the hand and lead me through every step of the way with an ease an confidence to her that she developed over time and many sales.We sold it on the MLS and had 20 offers from investors and let me tell you it was exciting to be part of it.

Do they put you at ease by just writing up 10 offers that have no chance of being accepted?  

If the recession is long and deep you may realize some pressures to lower rents but if that happens then I'm not sure where you could invest that would survive that type of recession.  

He is just as much as fault as you are, but he isn't under the time pressure to sell the house. 

Generally speaking though, there seems to be the consensus that in the next 2-5ish years, there will be some sort of market correction.In that same breath, it seems like there is ALWAYS this underlying pressure (not really the word I'm looking for...) to KEEP BUYING DEALS, almost regardless of what the current state of the market is.  

I just wanted to make sure to be able to line up my own financing in case he says no.At this point in time, I'm not really looking to partner with anyone because I don't want to have any pressures on me regarding expectations with this lot.

Depending on water pressure in the area or the number of units in a building, you could possibly have to sprinkle the building.

You would be better served to collect quotes from a handful of foundation specialists then choose one.As for costs, it will be dependant on many factors: type of foundation; type of soil/rock; depth of underpinning / ease of soil removal; and your location.