If you find someone that will let you supply the materials and work for labor only and sign a contract you supplied , you have hired an employee , a laborer , not a contractor .

If you are self employed with no full time employees then you should consider a Solo 401k for your traditional funds and no UBIT on leveraged real estate. 

Then, speak to a lender or two and ask them to help evaluate your deal! 

She may me a nice person, great employee, perfect family member, and deserving of many platitudes, but she is a freaking lousy tenant!

I evaluate the performance of every income generating property that I own. 

With a 7% interest rate and high HOA fees, the key is evaluating if your skills and investments can generate higher returns elsewhere.

Of course, there is no absolute right or wrong answer, you really should evaluate what is right for you and your family at this time and in the future.

I’ve worked for some group home providers where they employ a maintenance worker who handles some of these issues (usually if the have multiple homes in a specific geographic location) and I’ve worked for homes where the handiest employee fixes things and that option doesn’t always have the best outcomes.

Its a good discussion, these stories always help to re-evaluate and discuss our markets, or whether or not it's worth staying in them.

, it's still highly unlikely that an appraiser would have given value to this bathroom in any case, so we're not losing anything from an appraised value standpoint.Seller should be more than OK with it once you educate them on the fact that of all the offers they are evaluating, yours is the only one willing and able to execute a plan to close on-time, without delay, in spite of the flagrantly illegal and unpermitted bathroom.