Of course, I want to meet them and " get a feel" for the type of person they are, to determine if they a person of good character... whether or not  take care of the property is my main concern.

its Capacity  Character  credit.

My understanding is that the seller is requesting this statement as she is afraid of being sued following the completion of the transaction.The listing agent has engaged in character defamation (in regards to me) when speaking to the contractors engaged to do the work as well as the seller, and has also flip-flopped on agreements for work to be completed, and also verbally said the seller would provide a $6,000 credit (which never materialized).

The reason you want to approach it this way is that if the gain attributed to your primary side is less than $250K you cannot take any overage and apply it to the other side.  

My first thought was to leave the rock there to give the home sole character, but some contractor told me to tear it all out and replaced with all new siding because it it dated .

I apologize for the slaughter of words due to the character handicap.

This could be attributed to the baby boomers turning to snowbirds, and retiring in the warmer areas.

Income will pass through to the individual and retain its character.

It is important to consider the positive and negative attributes of real estate investing.

So kick some possibilities - If you rent for two years (the IRS safe harbor) and then lived in it for 3 years as a primary you'd get to exempt 60% of the gain not attributable to depreciation up to the 250/500K max.