As those prices fluctuate, there is a builders somewhere putting his feet up waiting to see a market turn more active because the last thing he wants to do is start paying crews to build houses, that could drop in value while he's halfway through the build process and losing equity halfway into the project.

Active vs passive. 

Gita,At least the way I prefer to do things is to only run accrual based accounting activity on my day to day operations.

I'm from Leesburg, an active-duty Air Force member, too (retiring soon).

Hi Kmsuea, it all depends on your commitment to actively looking for and purchasing a property. 

And even here, you still need to be "active" to research who you are lending your $$ to, and due diligence on the deal itself prior to investing your money.

While the power can't be selectively turned off, it’s really about active management and oversight once the utilities are in the PM's name.

I've argued for this and the powers-that-be do have a good argument that they are still active just in other ways, how to cover labor and actions during that, etc..

Be pro active.

Denver and its surrounds have particularly active markets and a lot of active individuals offering ancillary services so I'd suggest you research those available services you're looking at offering to help you get an idea for what is well covered, what is lacking and what your competitor's pricing looks like.