Piling a bunch of college students in one is just icing on the cake.

Piece of cake.

``````````````````````````"One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence isappreciation, Somehow, we neglect to praise our son or daughterwhen he or she brings home a good report card, and we fail toencourage our children when they first succeed in baking a cake orbuilding a birdhouse.Nothing pleases children more than this kind of parental interest andapproval.

Any cash flow is icing on the cake, but not the reason for the purchase. 2) Purchase with the lowest down payment possible. 

Anyone else is a piece of cake. 

Was it like a piece of cake, or did it drive you crazy like my 1st deal?

Some things are cheaper at HD, but all in all the Menards 11% store-wide rebates and 2% year-end-rebate (in addition to our corporate 2% visa card rewards) takes the cake... not to mention getting last sale price on big orders and the random mail-in rebates come automatically attached to our receipts.  

Mixing up my long-term and short-term goals kind of sounds like I was trying to "have my cake and eat it too" :) I guess I shouldn't have expected that to be very likely...I think I'll try to start looking for better value-buys in neighboring cities for my long-term interests, and then find a cheaper place to rent from for the short-term.

I consider appreciation as icing on the cake or a bonus, but not really a solid reason for me to purchase.

You want your cake and you want to eat it too.