Ask him or her to give you an estimate over the phone.I do not enjoy wasting my contractors' time.

As you do it, learn more about passive investment opportunities in real estate, stuff you can do sitting at home with minimal leverage.To be more specific, this idea you have of paying off your current house, moving into a bigger and better house, then paying off the mortgage for the second house by renting out your former house...that's a classic dilettante's idea.

Silll, buying a home that you do not enjoy and that does not make sense as an investment will likely be a painful waste of money unless you hope to hit the appreciation jackpot, in which case you're gambling and not investing.

I don’t want to engage a realtor at this point and waste anyone’s time since I’ll be waiting 2-3 years..

People apply for mortgages when they are on the up and up, and FICO knows this too (this will be minimal and go away after a few months - call it 2 points for 2 months).When you get a new mortgage (ie, when the loan funds and it closes) your FICO score will tank for a few months.

The minimal cost is not worth the risk of losing everything (not my flip thankfully but I got a free lesson out of it)

We make in the mid 6 figures (W2 income).Advice we are looking for:- 401k, avoid 401k, or contribute what my employer matches- Ira’s- very knowledgeable in Real Estate strategies- minimize our taxes in Retirement- minimize our taxes now.- I’m not interested in anyone selling insurance - I know everyone says not to count on my pension, there is no guarantee, but if there was a measure of likelihood that a company would be able to honor their pension commitments then the conservative private company I work for would be rated the highest.- not really interested in savings advice on our 529 plan.- Nothing against Dave Ramsey, I really like most of his advice, but I think some of it is very basic and geared towards low income earners and people who have been very irresponsible with their money and are trying to dig out.- we have a about $70k to invest from our SDIRA, less if we convert a portion of that to a Roth.- we also will have about $250k to invest from the sale of our home.

My goal is to minimize the tampering of the thermostat and avoid having to repair the A/C.  

Most agents usually will unless they think you're wasting their time.

Right now I just want to know what to do to minimize any further mistakes and fix the ones we’ve already made.