They could have pipes clogged by cement, AC that does not operate, or any other number of issues that can be hidden with utilities turned off.

He says the guy who poured the cement didn't do a good job or the house settled the early years of life..

Yeah the situation is one corner of the back of the property has a depression on the cement where it meets the house and as a result this corner falls 4 inches below the base flood elevation, requiring Flood insurance to the tune of about 2,500 a year.

I would compare having an architect do the plan to having a Dentist clean my teeth.

For example your trip to doctor, dentist and laywer are all 3 professionals that you can let them know if they get into a situation where they want to invest but dont have time to manage your there answer.

Dr, lawyer, Dentist etc).

ok. that makes a little more sense. btw, you should always be there when someone like that is moving out. you never know if she will take the cabinets or pour cement down the drain pipes...

Then I have a dentist appointment, after which I need to call my attorney to correct a Deed, call a lender in Texas (I am in California), check on a couple of new leads, and then go over the books.My wife works full time so I do quite a bit of the house stuff.

Put it this way dentist don't give away free check ups neither do doctors.

I should preface this next part by saying that I am not a futures trader, but I tried to collect this data as accurately as I could:Commodity Time period Change in costCopper 2001-2007 UP 388%Steel 2001-2007 UP 238%Asphalt Cement 2001-2007 UP 143%Cement 2001-2007 UP 92%Gasoline 2001-2007 UP 96%US electricity prices 2001-2007 UP 118%US Median HouseholdIncome 2001-2007 UP 70%US Median Price of aSingle family home 2001-2007 UP 37%Lumber and plywood were fairly flat during this time frame.