South Dallas and West Dallas area's you can readily find what you're looking for (pennies on a dollar),just be conscious of your surroundings. 

And while I don't regret it as a key foot in the door in real estate, we have to be conscious about how our time and living situation gets tied up in our business, in regards to loved ones..

The only people who can ride the crashing waves and make it alive are those who are conscious that a crash is coming soon because of economic cycles.

Well we have an impassee with people at water dept that want $2.5k for environmental study for water and another $2.5k for sewer etc.

I could come up with $4000 if I had to, I'm self employed , and with two kids in high school one heading to college in the fall, I'm very conscious of the bills, I have an emergency fund, a years worth of living expenses,it's also the money I'm hoping to spend on real estate when the market cools off.

When we encounter a property with oil heat we discount it in our offer ... for us it is the environmental liability of having several hundred or thousand gallons of heating oil stored on site.Regardless of your heating fuel choice the best way to improve efficiency is to reduce fuel consumption via better air sealing and additional insulation.

Most of us are pretty suggestible and will respond to a stranger's house with conscious and unconscious opinions about the furniture, the smells, whether it looks happy or sad, etc.

Great question about outsourcing David and I love your larger question pertaining to the "neoAmerican illusion" - where too much is never enough.It is a very complex issue that involves consideration of our social and environmental impact at home and globally.

is saying...It's easy to let your design-centric thinking get the best of you, but when it's your budget you will be more conscious of that.

CPTED.... crime prevention through environmental design.... good ideas for making properties less prone to crime.....worth looking into.We had a tenant who wanted a deck (wood) added to the back of the house he was renting from us, we approved it (in writing) and the tenant paid for it and did all the work (he was skilled at making decks).