I personally haven't spent a dime on marketing and this keeps us growing and busy.Now for Real Estate is another story since I'm starting out Marketing is huge in my opinion so I spend mot of my time thinking about this. 

I am mot sure if they can come even close to the second quote.I do want to fight the insurance.

It seems to me education is the mot important thing in REI and maybe life.

If they call I'll do business but mot pawn shops I spoke to aren't interested.

Mot people get started by finding a deal, buying it and starting to renovate.  

Steve you must put a deposit by credit card before you can bid. and if you are the high bidder even though it may state that the bid did mot meet the price they will want you to wire EM money to closing agent within 2 hours

In fact mot of the offers were slightly below that.

Depending on the county you're purchasing in, you might mot be able to purchase a home in the $500K range as it might exceed the county loan limit.

do the  breakeven  analysis  .....divide the costs of the additonal points  by the monthly  savings  .....this will give you the number of months  it will take to  recover the  extra  costs ....if you plan to keep the property and the loan  longer than this breakeven period  ( and you have the  extra  cash ) - then you might consider taking the lower rate .....mot of the  time buying  down the rate doesnt  make much  sense  ( unless you have a  change to do it  when rates are  already  super low )

But lates face it, mot investors are in it for the money.