I would definitely recommend adding a profile picture, I believe it really enhances the forum interaction and sense of community.

If it's an investment property & you want to make it really interesting....separate the land & home @ the time of purchase.Own the land in another entity (or by your kids)now you lease it back....you get the depreciation of the 'improvement' (home) & you get to take the land lease deduction, esp worth it if the land is a significant $ value as per the assessor.Around here we found land values can be high because of the larger tracts of land.

I would fix or improve something and ask for her imput in order to show her the value of you as a landlord.

How can we structure an open ended escrow that places the funds with a third party and allows me to do the improvements and address the deferred maintenance?

You should consider adding a profile picture, I feel it really enhances the interactions on the forums and helps add to the sense of community.

Please consider adding a profile picture, it really enhances interaction on the forums and helps build a sense of community.

Since I couldn't move in before it was repaired, it sat unoccupied while I made repairs as well as all of the improvements I had planned on making.

The credit is $2,000 for a dwelling unit that is certified to have an annual level of heating and cooling energy consumption at least 50% below the annual level of heating and cooling energy consumption of a comparable dwelling unit and has building envelope component improvements that account for at least 1/5 of the 50% reduction in energy consumption.

Basically, learn how to be an investor of anything that has a cash flow flow profile attached to it.

I would first look to improve my credit, even if I had to use some of that 8K to do it.Good credit is an essential part of my strategy and probably most other's, too.