Explore my personal favorites, Set For Life by Scott Trench or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, for invaluable financial insights.3.

Avoiding accessive PM fees (personally I recommend most people self-manage)These will eat away at your ROI.

We will shop for used appliances where we can when we need one… or pick up used cabinets if we can, or search eBay for something smaller,  but going to the extreme of personally shipping something big in internationally for one-off renovation needs seems like a stretch of reasonable.Just like you mention, the number of unknowns would not seem to be worth it to me.Just my 2 cents.Randy  

I purchase my personal investments to maximize their equity and hold long term.

Are you interested in S8 because of a personal reason or you think it's the next "hot" investment idea?

Other than paying for an appraisal or BPO (and maybe a credit report), you should not pay a lender anything until your loan funds.

I personally hate them and think they are little more dust magnets but will add some if crucial. :) 

All it ends up being is one person saying "Is not!"

Explore my personal favorites, Set For Life by Scott Trench or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, for invaluable financial insights.3.

No personal income or tax returns are required.