I would suggest that if you want to pick PDX to be your market that you operate in, then take a close look at what REI strategy lends itself to that market and pursue the path of least resistance, rather than trying to force your strategy on a given market (not saying thats what your doing).

It's very cluttered, and the purple carpet reminds of a church alter color (but it is very pretty).I did a quick mockup of a less cluttered room, and used Shaw brown colored pet resistant carpet.I put a mushroom colored sofa at one end and an Avocado green and rust chair at the other end.I also put in a minibar and two small (vs one big) log burners (for winter and fall).it might also be nice to have some kind of sound system in the ceiling that can hitch onto your cell phone and play your music from your phone.If you notice rather than paint a wall, I simply used a drapery to color it from end to end.Here I used a muddy looking mustard color with some checkers on it.I also toned down the white window trim to deep brown color, and put some sheers inside to make the house feel bigger.You could also use knotty pine wainscoting in some areas to break up the horizontal-ness of it.

If it isn't mold it could well turn into in to mold if  constant moisture is present, especially if the drywall isn't the mold resistant type. 

I relate very heavily to you and your wife’s frustration with wanting to stay informed and being met with resistance.

If she raises helll or throws a fit in response to a calm, rational discussion of the issue...Well, frankly that would make me skeptical of her reluctance and motives for resisting the prenup.  

There are plenty out there.You could be your own agent and remove this resistance.

They will also pick their battles against groups with limited lobbying influence in the area because it offers the path of least resistance.

Having a great team in place is probably just as important as picking a market with good underlying fundamentals (a diverse JOBS market (ideally recession-resistant jobs like in govt., education, healthcare, defense), population growth, desirability, affordability, favorable weather and landlord/tenant laws).

Not sure any system is fraud-proof, aim for fraud resistant and weeding out 99% of the liars :)

If you take advantage of new technologies: thermal mass electric resistance heating elements or electric air-2-air or ground-2-air heat pumps (especially ductless units with split heads), electricity can actually be cheaper.We have no oil heated properties and whenever we pursue a property heated with oil, we determine the cost of converting it to natural gas or electric and bake it into our analysis.