I also find your story delightful, and glad your wisdom kicked in. 

I didn't want to cave man it because I thought there should be some sort of mechanism.Here are a couple of pics that show something...

Delighted, Trevon Hutchinson

I recently did a refinance personally, and bullet pointed out all the ways in which the listing agent did a horrible job of marketing the property, caved on price during negotiations, etc, among other things, to make the appraiser more comfy with an opinion of value significantly higher than I purchased the property for.

If it weren't for us half the world would be living in caves and the rest in public housing!

In Los Angeles, $385K won't even get you a 1 bedroom condo with a caved-in roof and negative cash-flow.It was bad enough 2 years ago, but now with the Rams moving back and the new stadium under construction, things have gotten bat guano insane.

Of course it will be cheaper, but don't forget, sometimes you get what you pay for.I'm not going to advise you to find a licensed, bonded contractor to do the kind of work a cave-man can do.

and they finally caved since Metro is buying it and will use the property for perminant open space.. this is a 500k chunk of dirt.. out in the semi  boonies of Oregon..

Its my new nerd cave. 

Depreciation also affects the book value of your asset and your equity as well.Also, your accountant will be delighted to see everything in one place comes tax season.