Home price increases are sharpest in these markets, while dwindling housing inventory in the lower price classes could be discouraging people from buying.”Here are the basic stats on single-family home sales for February 2018 for the City of Austin and the greater Austin area:About the local economy, Mark Sprague, state director of information capital for Independence Title, said, "While wages and jobs in the Austin area haven’t increased, the local economy remains strong and continues to attract new residents and potential homebuyers.

Search for independent studies vs. those funded by the window industry (who push the use of UPVC due to profit margins). 

Not one of the guys that takes kickbacks from the agents to ignore the structural paint and say "it's fine, LOL" - somebody independent that you pay. 

In my opinion this could be good for the small independent investors, by removing some of the regulations intended for the big banks.

There seems to be a lot to unwrap there and I haven't done any kind of independent research to verify if every ecomic body out there is raising their forecast of growth or not.

Negotiate with the seller and reduce the offer price by taking into account the cost of replacing the entire plumbing (got a qoute of 5K from a independent plumbing contractor for replacing most of the plumbing).I would really like to know from the experienced folks here in the forums what would you do in this situation or what would you recommend I do in this situation?

The best thing to do is find a local independent insurance agent who works with investors and have them shop with all there companies.

Here's my plan:I want to be financially independent by selling my personal residence and investing the proceeds to pay my living expenses.If I net 180k from the sale and use 10k toward the downpayment on my next residence, I'll have 170k left to invest.

I think most of the independent, smaller landlords operating in C/C- areas are probably a bit more willing to work with tenants having temporary problems to avoid evictions and skips and as a result may have lower eviction rates.

Apparently that definition is open to wide interpretation and unlike an independent contractor it gets really messy when you try to hold a tenant's feet to the fire over shoddy work.