As long as the building envelope (roof, walls, windows, doors) have been relatively water tight since the house was built and not allowed any mold or rot to set in, the wood will last for centuries.  

I use my cost per unit per year as expenses can be very different location to location.I specialize in mid-century properties. 

Let's say I'm a licensed real estate agent and have access to a MLS system, but I don't want to join an agency like century 21, KW etc. and instead find my own sellers/buyers.

That's a 27.4 percent increase over the city's population of 656,562 recorded during the 2000 decennial census.When ranked against 30 other cities with populations of 500,000 or more at the turn of the 21st century, only two other large cities – Fort Worth and Charlotte, North Carolina – grew their populations faster than Austin.

While financing is hard to get outside of private money, 21st Century has indicated that they do financing at not horrible rates (high 8% range) for investors with 20-30% down. 

The Pacific Rim countries are much larger and more dramatic than what Europe was at the tum of the century.

In 2001, (when the time requirement was significantly less), I studied in one of Century 21's offices, in Beaverton.

Same price as our multis, but new instead of a century old and a fraction the sinks, toilets, heating systems etc.  

That being said, its important to act and not wait for the deal of the "century" because how many deals will you be giving up for that one "deal".

Lease options have been around for centuries so I don't really consider them as an area of creative financing.The more creative side is how the strategy or system is presented, not really so much as to its structure.