Ok off the soap box now.

This is the root of ATR, ability to repay, that there's full doc proving a DTI  and the borrower agrees they can afford the mortgage.  

For example in my city some older outside plumbing pipes in the 70's and earlier are clay and tree roots can grow into them.

Soap Box ONOver time, most activities (e.g. businesses, sports, personal relationships, etc.) where judgement is involved, develop 'rules of thumb', 'short cuts', 'approximations', etc. which allow you to make 'quicker' decisions at the expense of less certainty; they will be wrong some of the time.

We started this the grass roots way and have fought our way up.

You will need to do some selective demo to open up the area in question to get to the root of the problem. 

Have a guy come auger it he pulls roots out. 

Fear is often rooted in that which we do not know.  

I am rooting for St.

I have lived in the Baltimore area for a year and 1/2 and after finally "dropping some roots" in the Baltimore area, I am eager take the plunge into real estate investing in my adopted new home.After saving up some investment capital, I am finally in a position to start prospecting and seeking lending opportunities.