Light rail and the work from home crowd is definitely spurring things as well.

The city wanted asbestos clearance before they could give me a green light for demo.

For anyone else reading this thread, I ended up contacting a home inspector I've worked with in the past and he has agreed to do a "light" home inspection for $100, so that works out perfect. 

Now, I’m completely interested in marrying real estate with my overall asset mix.My main goal is two-pronged: 1) I’d like to develop a passive income strategy that’s “light touch” to diversify my retirement savings and income (and to have someone else increase my net worth); and 2) passive income so that I can also diversify my current earnings and not rely as heavily on the peaks and troughs of my photography business.If I can really focus and sink my teeth in this world, heck maybe I can create cash flowing opportunities to find other business ideas I have as well.

Thanks for the material and shedding light on horrible business practices across our nation. 

@Jenifer Levini and @Dana ReganJenifer, I am about as far from a lawyer as on could be so I will walk lightly with my response and take criticism with alacrity.I have read where putting money in one LLC, and then lending to a different LLC is a method of asset protection. 

As Hurricane Harvey showed, "flood maps" can be unreliable in light of global warming.If a few hundred dollars makes the difference between profit or not, your deal might need to be reconsidered. 

This essentially means you need a lot higher income to qualify for properties as a primary residence while as an investment property the pro is that you get to use rental income to offset your mortgage PITIA and you ONLY have to qualify for whatevers left if the calculation results in a negative cashflow number (if its positive it actually requires zero income or it just helps your situation ).So regarding the topic of how DTI affects what you qualify for, yes DTI is the main determinant that will affect your purchasing power so carefully plan your next 5 moves like PBD patrick bet david says but in this context its the next financial strategic moves not PBD's 5 next moves.Let me know if that helps or questions that arise and someone on our team can help shed some light on this often over looked topic further.

I can watch the prospects to make sure they are treating my property with respect and I can see if they remembered to lock the door or.forgot to turn a light off etc.

The first step everyone needs to do, to get anywhere near accuracy in "what's next", is to THROW OUT that garbage thought pattern that the housing market is a light switch that operate in either "Red-Hot" or "Crash" modes.