The kitchen and to some extent the baths are not as taste specific so that is good they are big ticket items that I think would appeal to most people.

when this shows up in the mail, future lottery ticket.

If you're starting out and need a lower price point to get into a property, if you're not interested in maintaining mechanical or roofs, if you want managed costs (HOA's) versus the occasional big ticket cost (hot water heater fails), they can be a great option.  

so we could retire, or at least take off for a whole year.We spent about 6 months scaling down our lives, sold our property with the mega mortgage and paid cash for a small home (which we later rented out), a fellow agent took care of our rental properties for a small fee, and we bought a one-way ticket to New Zealand, via Fiji.

The Dept. of Justice says rebates are allowed in Arizona and 39 other states. https://www.justice.gov/atr/competition-and-real-estate-state-7 But the Dept. of Justice website calculation on Realtor Rebate Savings is very weak as you can do a lot better  https://www.justice.gov/atr/consumers-save-thousands-commissions Also, depending on the loan and type of property you're purchasing, Buyer Agent Rebates can:pay for Interest Rate Reduction pay for rental car for buyers while in FLpay for plane tickets to FL to shop pay to eliminate PMI pay to buy out remainder of leasepay towards down paymentpay for the 1st full year of home ins. pay for taxes and ins. escrowspay for a Home Warrantypay for home repairspay off credit card debt, auto loans, etc.pay off collections and judgmentspay for new furniturepay for all new appliancespay for home remodeling and additionspay to have home painted pay for weekly pool maintenance pay for credit repair pay for landscapingpay for monthly lawn carepay for new A/C system...........and pay portion to prior agent for their efforts

@Rick HarmonYou encourage and scare me in the same post :-)So you have done plenty of RM deals, but at the same time there is a HIGH possibility of exposing yourself to kids protecting their meal ticket and claiming elder abuse.

A few hundred dollars for a ticket is a worthwhile cost compared to some of the alternatives.

It was a great way to earn some spending money and in many cases paid for the tickets and some left over.

Just an FYI.....Menards contractor cards gets you an airline ticket to anywhere in the 48 states for every $100,000.00 you spend there.  

I can make it back to the states on short notice if need be, or take substantial time off (a month if need be) but I don't want to do the back-and-forth every couple months due to the high cost of plane tickets.