It appears that its just a way to artificially inflate the cost basis to lower the tax burden.

We just said, hey, let's throw a number at them that looks intelligible, that was 89k.

As a Broker, I represent my client's interest and you can bet the farm that I would be placing an Addendum in front of the seller to sign and selling him on getting the deal done.You can find another buyer but intelligent investors know that what you let slip by to get a deal done - will come back to bite you good after the close.  

Turns out you need to take intelligent action, not ignoring the laws of gravity, and you have to do it consistently. 

It takes a certain type of intelligence to learn to do this. 

I’d like to have a conversation with the contractor and sound intelligent in doing so.

Drought tolerant landscaping front and back including artificial turf.

I determine an investor's qualifications based upon my own "intimate knowledge" of their financial intelligence, not whether they meet some government imposed qualification standard of their abilities.

I hope this doesn't sound negative or offensive because you seem like an extremely hard working guy who is also very intelligent...

People are seeing that often money is buying degrees, so it threatens to lessen the value as intelligence becomes secondary to wealth in admissions.I would go for the less expensive one and avoid loans.