I simply provided window units, it cost me about $800 which is substantially cheaper. 

It'll also make the shelves and room look a bit bigger, and is much cheaper than tiling over.https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-66umtfIeG80/UE6gIBiGb6I...Obviously this would look a bit different, but just to give you a general idea of how it could look .

If you are a USAA member you get a cheaper rate. 

if you are going to stay in the house for more then 3 years you can do a single pay upfront pmi it usually comes out cheaper

When I walk through a place, I don't see how it looks but what it could look like based on the type of work I am capable of.I personally like homes from the 50s (good thick hardwood often hidden under a bad carpet) but avoid late 60s and 70s (popcorn ceiling = asbestos) and often cheaper construction grade.Overall, I found that flipping is a good way to turn your free time into equity/money and a great learning experience but it is hard work and definitely not for everyone.

But again, In many areas of Houston it's cheaper to own than rent, so it may help them in the immediate aftermath. ...In such situations I think it should be considered.Now on the flipside, if you have no equity and no plan for how to exit from the damaged home, you'd be out of luck when the deferment ran out and you can't do anything with the old house. 

Refinancing your loan to $192,000 probably wouldn't significantly help your cash flow situation, and the $13,000 would only get you into a cheaper rental somewhere out of state (in a possible war zone unless you have additional capital to also invest).  

You won't get quality any cheaper than what they can get it to you for. 

Positives:-Cheaper price "per door"-Lower taxes-Higher cap ratesNegatives-Much harder to control rehab/turnover costs-Much less control-No manager ever cares as much as you do!

@Manolo D. we were definitely happy with the overall outcome. the GC we used did a great job. we plan on using his crew again on our next property if possible. however, I'm guessing you're referring to my other discussion about rehab costs from my contractor. we were happy with the outcome of this project but I don't have anything to compare this to. the fact of the matter is we don't know if his prices were fair for the market. we were in very unique circumstances on the last project where we had flexibility with our budget, so even if he charged more than the competition we still came out on top. moving forward we need to know more details. we are currently making offers on properties in need of rehab and we're using this GC's quote to help us budget for our max offer. if we can use him and still make a competitive offer then we will but we are getting beat by other offers. we just need to analyze all factors to see what we can change in order to compete. the two main concerns are that we are up against other investors making cash offers so they have no loan contingency and no mortgage payments inflating their holding costs, plus they probably have cheaper labor and material costs. so, we're just trying to analyze everything. our GC did a great job, only went slightly over budget compared to his original estimate, but we did plan for contingency and I ended up doing a lot of the work, so we were overall under budget, and he offered the quality of work we were happy with.