The place is barely livable, has a lot of back taxes, and ownership was never transferred when their mother passed.

Predicting the future is impossible 5 years ago Grey in the kitchen was unheard of, Now everyone does it.In 4-5 years my bet is on yellow, but it could well be Neon Pink and Green 

In my opinion, you're limiting the ability to sell your note if you keep the UPB the same and defer the balance owed.We're "stuck" with a barely re-performing note in which the borrower filed Ch 13 BK.

My combined net commission from both of those first sales barely covered my startup costs, but I had some transactions under my belt and had learned a massive amount in under a year. 

@Jim David Jim, having a rental property in the Bay is just easier for us to manage, and I have to admit that we barely know anything about OOS investment.

Stuff gets sucked up real quick, and signs for rentals are barely up for more than a week around town in Tacoma.

For example if I am buying a larger house in a smaller neighborhood, I will use one of the more expensive sales in the neighborhood in ad on 15K or so as a bare minimum comp.

Accredited classes are offered on line, I'd think that would be the bare knuckles way to go, but if you cannot attend a class, it's an option. :)

I haven been using postlets for 3 years now and barely get anything from CL anymore - it all comes from postlets

But  I'd do the vinyl laminate in the bath with simple flat wood transition into hall (poly and stain the transition too as you can buy bare wood lengths in bulk)..