Jon and Chris: First, I can't thank yoiu enough for your bothering to offer advice.

My boyfriend has done construction and estimates and we can get a good first impression before bothering an agent What we mostly need is someone to do the paperwork right and protect our money and time.BTW, we're not ready quite yet- almost though.

I won't bother listing all the expenses, as I don't think the individual itemized list would add to the discussion.

Tenants just can't be bothered... even when you go way above and beyond for them.

I seriously doubt any lawyer would even bother trying to get you involved, but if that were to happen, go find a decent real estate attorney to help you out.Also, if you listed on the MLS, I assume you have an agency relationship with a broker, regardless of whether that agent is heavily involved in the transaction or not (unless you have some MLS or state rules that allow you to list without a broker, in which case, ignore this point).

Ya, I didn't even bother deselecting ones I knew, I just hit 'select all'You're welcome for the spam :)

I'm going to go back to your question about the roof,,,if my inspector says a roof is in good shape, no signs of leaking, being 18 years old doesn't bother me at all, I replaced the roof on my residence last year (because of hail storm, insurance paid for it), it was the original roof from 1986, no repairs ever done, now I have walked away from a deal in part because of roof condition, but not age

Sounds like you would be bothering a lot with countering an "offer" a tenant has from a handyman.

I agree it's a frustrating rule but as a long term investor it doesn't bother me that much because an OO buyer will be engaged in the neighborhood and stabilize it.

When 90% of the real estate market is available to see the inside why would you even bother with such crap.