If I had a cement truck and the know-how, you can be sure I would be pouring the foundation myself.

Taking the time to visit their property before starting the number crunching can go a long way in cementing the deal in my opinion!  

I've never used thinset under cement board, for what it's worth.

I'd be a dentist and make some money then invest part time making a transition to what I loved doing.While I don't totally regret my Army service (especially as much as when I was in, LOL) it wasn't my greatest earning years, I paid a price so to speak that made me more successful, mission oriented, self control, determination, mental endurance, mental toughness, self confidence and a mature bearing all contributed to what followed.

Reading your post cements my new thought process.My husband and I purchased our first two properties about 8 months ago.

Some great investors we knew at the start. 1-a dishwasher bus boy. 2-a vice president of a fortune 500 company. 3- a service station attendant. 4-a new dentist. 5-a county social worker. 6-a frustrated accountant.Plus a whole spectrum of people, you name a group, I knew one.

Have a good flooring contractor come in and float the whole thing with cement based underlayment.

If your nice cement pool is buried in the ground without any water and we get a 17 inch storm coming through, you will hear a loud explosion in your back yard, and you go running out and your cement pool will no longer be in the ground!

The countertops are all cement grey quartz.

It would have been several thousand to cut the cement floor and get everything replaced.