The appraiser, in most cases especially in Ca, is not even allowed to attach an invoice to the appraisal to show what he or she was paid.Secondly, $450 or $500+ is not a typical exterior drive by fee.

Get invoices from contractor.

What I did is sent an invoice to the Title company handling the closing.

I'm a true believer that if you want to secure your future owning a few rental properties is a dang good way to do it. 

While in general the (true and not manipulated) cap rates are pretty dang great in this price range.

I do the math each month and send my tenants a “rental invoice” which includes how much they owe in billed back utilities plus their base rent.  

It's been a bear trying to estimate repair costs because things here in Seattle are so danged high that prices are ridiculous to get any work done... if you can even get people to call you back.

Then just start taking tiny steps of action each day.I gotta say: JLD's Freedom Journal has been pretty dang helpful for me on the "action" front.

4 daughters, dang!

KA DING, Aggghaw...CKACHEEWEEE, whey, that was a good one, dang near lost my chew!