As a start, partially close the upstairs vents to force more air downstairs.

Since posting, we had an inspection done.Property needs new roof and guttering (like yesterday)The air conditioner is drum roll... 31 yrs old.Water heater is 20 years.There are some old wires in the property that need attention.

I've been in the Air Force for the past 10 years and I'm hoping to use this as a means to becoming financially independent by the time I retire in another ten years so that I can focus on what makes me happy rather than what pays the bills.I am currently living in the Richmond, VA area, where I own a home that I will be renting out in another year or so when I leave here.If anyone has any advice, I am all ears and I look forward to participating in these forums!

I also have a cleaner that comes through to clean a couple of Sundays out of the month. 

@Brent CoombsI do believe i could get all my cash back, I have heard this method preached by many people on BP over and over again and I'm convinced it will work...but you must understand that this is our first one so there is always the air of uncertainty since we haven't gone through the process. 

And get this, the professional cleaner they hired for the rental office and amenity spaces on this project, thought it was real wood!

One thing to consider is that I don't believe it is technically legal to VRBO/AirBNB. http://kutv.com/news/get-gephardt/air-bnb-rentals-...I did have a friend who used his house as a winter ski rental and seemed to have good success with it.

Work your markets and local regional banks to get better pricing and or cleaner assets.  

While most Net Zero buildings are energy efficient, perhaps even highly so in comparison to minimum building code requirements, there is nothing requiring them to anywhere new the efficiency level of a Passivhaus   .... this is why you will see odd things like warehouses with large rooftop solar installations being able to claim Net Zero.On the other hand, Passivhaus sets three metrics which a building must meet to be certified as Passivhaus compliant:  The building must have a heating and cooling demand of not more than 15 kWh/m2 (4,755 BTU/sq ft; 5.017 MJ/sq ft) per year  and a peak heat load of 10 W/m2.Total primary energy consumption (energy for heating, hot water and electricity) must not be more than 120 kWh/m2 (38,040 BTU/sq ft; 40.13 MJ/sq ft) per yearThe building must not leak more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour (n50 ≤ 0.6 / hour) at 50 Pa (0.0073 psi) as tested by a blower door.Ironically, the research and pilot projects which fuelled what eventually became the Passivhaus standard was carried out in Saskatchewan as a National Research Council (NRC) project in the 1970s (the house is still in use today) and a similar project (Minnesota?)

What DF did to investors is put us into a box of "preditor lenders" that DTI and 1003 and ATR ability to repay is the regs attempt to force us to prove this loan is NOT preditory, is affordable and a good value.A lesser talked about need is to show that selling price is "market value" and not a picked out of thin air price the investor picked to their advantage.