I guarentee you oil nozzles, burners, cad cells and all the controls are easily available and most likely hvac guys keep them in their trucks up there. #3 hydronic boiler could also do your domestic hot water.

Actually, my "lofty" real estate goals have been put on the back-burner for a couple years while I focus on family (we have two little kids under the age of 3).

I would sit that idea on the back burner for now.

I wonder if the lobbyists and fat cats had this in mind...

All kinds of rehabbers are complaining of tightening profit margins in the past several months as the RE market warms up. 2 years ago, profit margins were FAT and markets were cold.I'll take a cold market over a hot one for flipping any day of the week.

There are so many doors that open with a degree, it depends on what you really want to do.If I had not had my degree I would not have been hired as a bank examiner, that opened the door to opening a mortgage company that changed my position in my RE investing, like kicking in the after burners.

I still say, just live with the exception(s) if the deal is fat enough.

After 3 years I got a call from the tenant that some of the burners weren't working.

That will allow you to scale up to high quality professional management and live like a fat cat.

I think this is a bigger "every market is different" thing than pretty much anything else.I honestly believe that every market will have big fat deals if you look long and hard enough.With new construction there is going to be a rule of thumb for the costs (around me it is $100-150/sqft) so you have a rough idea of what it will cost to build and you should have a feeling for what houses will sell for of that size and whatever room makeup you decide on.