Also, is it reasonable for a contractor to charge 5000 bucks for a bathroom reno?

If it’s more than a couple hundred bucks or thousands it’s not worth it.

On a recent one, we needed $7k added back, I felt we had $9500 in clear "one time" stuff, the underwriter came up with $4200 and we had to fight/escalate to get a smidgen over $7k to make the deal work (this was a refi of some other property to save a few bucks a month, not a purchase mortgage, so I felt OK about taking this risk). 

Where could you be creative and get the most bang for your buck?

Hey BP,

Does anyone have any tips using public records for pre for-closures ? Has any had any luck getting a generated list from the county ?

$35 bucks and very portable.

Michael:  I paid $500 bucks for some remodeling plans (yucca valley architect who is quas-retired) and he connected me to engineer/ and Title 24 guy  (new construction also requires soil test engineering and sometimes water flow testing for the water district)but I think 1000-1500 is probably  low end and 3500-5000 is high endI'm working on a hew house in pioneertown and I'm interviewing builders/general contractors (who have plans in their archives that were approved) -many plans approved in 2015 aren't valid.. because of the Title 24 increases every year and the 2016 codeNathan: exciting. yucca NEEDS some new apartments!

I have learned my lesson, and thankfully it hasn't cost me any big bucks. 

Does anyone know if properties purchased from either Montgomery or Bucks County Sheriff's Sales are able to have title insurance issued on those properties? 

better kick in some bucks for the Amazon HQ2 bribe.