On the other hand, drain pipes only carry water when the water is turned on at the faucet level, so since the water wasn't being used the evidence you saw of a leak was dry. 

- he said even though there was evidence of water damage to the sheetrock that it was dry and not wet and given patching evidence it was probably fixed. 

I have one property that has it in the dry wall mud.

In other words, Grandpa purposely didn't deal with the mortgage lien on the property as grandpa was in fact the mortgagee which by causing a default benefits his personal interest as the mortgagee by creating a barrier to reinstatement for lack of debt service and the excessive accrued interest.  

The new mortgage will add to the debt part of the debt to income ratio, so if you dont have excess income to offset that debt, you may exceed the ratio limits.I like Larry have history of rental income, so it can be included in our income, and the income of future purchases.  

He can do everything from dry wall to roofing, cabinetry, painting,... virtually anything except I don't want him doing electrical or plumbing until he gets licensed by a technical college for that.

We do have some liquid funds to buy properties and we also have in excess of $700,000 in 401k from previous employers to be able to set up a self directed IRA or 401k.

For larger projects with capital needs in excess of $1M the way to raise money probably won't change materially until the accredited investor revision is revised.  

Just a thought...when I'm looking at properties, excess land around the building is a negative for me.  

However, the real estate market is showing signs of cooling in certain areas, and coupled with a likely 0.25% rise in central bank rates per quarter in 2016 alone, there is a likely chance that appreciation will slow considerably, and certain financing options might dry up between now and then.