He is comfortable right where he is right now - we have a house, we have good paychecks, he works at oil wells (Schlumberger) and he loves being outdoors (play in the mud type thing), he loves his co-workers, he has his wine hobby (he makes wine and recently started making beer), we are all healthy and, except for a not so good credit, we have no problems.

Louis, Missouri area.I've been reading through BP for a while and feel it is a good place to network and learn from as I make mistakes.Hope everyone has a safe New Year celebration and I look forward to investing/learning/networking and getting unstuck from the mud and making my first deal in 2014!

One condo we did have foil wall paper embedded into the drywall, so we mudded primed and textured (orange peal) and there was no difference between the existing texture drywall and where we covered the wall paper.

The more mud you throw on the wall eventually some will stick".The more offers you submit (we would always low ball) the more chances you have of buying at a discount.

;) I'm so tight...er, frugal...that I keep the temp at about 60 while I'm working, unless there's something (paint, mud, etc) that needs to dry.

I was thinking of advertising it to Realtors around town in the "white box" stage of completion, meaning it is drywalled/mudded/taped/sanded but there is no paint on the interior, no flooring, no appliances, no countertops, no moulding, no hardware.

The real estate market here never ceases to amaze me, when I bought this place it was in a "undesirable" part of Berkeley which has seen numerous improvements over the last 5 years and I thought I was paying to much 5 years ago.

Lots of sheet rock dust, tape and mud there.

My biggest advice would be to tread carefully, as there are plenty of war zones and just generally undesirable areas.

YouTube and Google are your best friends when you get stuck.Painting and clean up are the easiest, followed by drywall and tiling (drywall requires a lot of patience due to having to use multiple coats of mud), and then comes plumbing and electrical.Get the right tools for the job - a good cordless drill and saw, trowels, paint brushes, etc. the extra few dollars will save you a lot in trips to the store and lost time.