He and wife, both artists, are handy people (which remains to be seen) and wish to decorate, renovate the home - the current home is a 60s art deco style home and have not had a major upgrade (think pink and blue tiles in the bathroom).He does not want to risk my selling the home next year to someone else and the lease expires, nor me raising rent or wanting to rent to someone else.

@Martha Saldana-Beene I would have preferred west Madison county - Madison, Harvest, Toney due to proximity to Redstone Arsenal and other employers along with just development patterns in general but bidding up would push my budget in those areas.

Rahul, I have about 10 you can talk to. you'll also want to have an equity partner with new build experience so you can get the best terms. most of ours are national lenders. we doing joint parnterhsips for new builds and take a small interest in a single purpose entity for example:Rahuls New Build LLC (95% owner)Pink Development and Construction LLC (5% owner, no voting or distribution rights)Take title to "Miami New Build Limited Partnership LLC" which is a single purpose entity. 

Here in California you have a better chance of finding a mythical pink unicorn.

Every time I play with snakes....Thank you for bringing to light the pain (not to mention the thousands and thousands of fees) to optimize ones ROI through equity harvesting, equity-stripping, leveraging your assets or whatever the latest 'sophisticated' way is to grow.  

It's against Craigslist's rules to harvest e-mail addresses on their site.

A 1960's pink bathroom may be old , but if everything is in good shape its a non issue . 

My rentals provide me the long stability as a backup if I had to I could live in one of them.... they also give me some income to offset the high rents in my area and tax deductions I'd see from owning a primary.Maybe once I'm retired and empty nester I'd buy as at that point stability could help.... or maybe it gives me the freedom to move around again.My two best days as a homeowner were the day I bought my house (the American Dream) and the day I sold my house (harvesting my equity and having a major responsibility lifted off my shoulders).

Other friends are tired of craigslist - they only get junk responses from email harvesters

Well, they're illegal in my area, although I think a neon hot pink sign would be an eyecatcher.