The fact he has that much equity should not be used against him as a metric for return.His return on investment is the more important number, and to calculate that an increasing equity would aid his return, not hinder it as it does in your calculation (especially if you are not including equity increases into the formula as part of the return).

I owned a computer consulting firm selling Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing systems to    architects, engineers and manufacturing companies.  

I've never seen so much kool-aid, boogers and little hand prints everywhere.

It may be that I have to look elsewhere for my first investment but the advice you have given me will aid me in the future.  

It will aide in determining a strategy and set up a system you understand.

This may lower the market value of single family homes aiding investors.Lastly, We have the Eco boomer generation who is 20 and under. 

But if you're really interested, one option would be to do a little research or sit down with a contractor and get a rough idea of the cost to renovate #2 well (no band-aids), then double it and add in value for things that might need fixing in #1 that you didn't do in #2 (i.e. if you gut the #2 kitchen assume you'll have to do the same in #1).

I believe our children come first (they are our future, of course :), and I'm all for the government spending as much of my tax dollars as necessary to ensure that every child in this country has access to health care and a great education.

Too much uncertainty with health care and cap and trade legislation working through Congress, plus, expiration of Bush tax cuts next year could hurt growth.

How many times have they announced that they are going to raise prices to offset higher steel/rubber/oil/wages/healthcare in the last year?