Your health is your wealth my friend.

Yes, it sucks but we have our health and our desire to make things better.

However, adds nothing to the economic plate.

It depends on what your need horizon is.If you are talking about money you need in the next six months, a credit union or online site like Ing would be the best.If you are talking about money you won't need for 20 years, lots more options open up and are independent of corrections due to any kind of 'flation.Personally, I think investors get too worked up about the micro-economic conditions.

The dust is the main health hazard.In my experience as bad as it sounds your first plan was the best, just put insulation over it and nail through it, Best to talk with your building codes office(maybe even call twice and make sure you get the same answer from two different people).

Scott Scheel mentions that for bigger properties it is tough to get a good deal in markets that are already showing good indications of future growth (either already in the process of growing, or showing the "obvious" increases in population/job growth) He says the best deals are frequently found in weak or even declining markets where you have much better leverage with sellers.This is a risky proposition because real estate trends seem to last quite a while, but if timed correctly an investor can do much better than average by getting in early before the rest of the herd does.Do you guys have any ideas of how to anticipate a potential turnaround area before the census data refects it (IMO this data is a beacon to RE investors) I have a couple ideas I think may be worth looking into:-Projected inflow of large, new employer-New transportation artery-Unaccounted change (in census data) of demographics (undesirables moving out, nicer crowd moving in)-Perhaps a well structured conversation with someone at the economic planning department to find out how close to fruition some upcoming changes are taking place.

This is awesome...First we agree on how to handle health care, and now we completely agree on this as well!

The field that studies this is called Behavioral Finance or Behavioral Economics.

But these prices appear destined to rise steeply with the economic recovery, so the opportunity will not last for too long.hmmmm, let's revisit this a year (or even two) from now ... the glut of condos on the market coupled with a very slow recovering economy should provide ample condo 'opportunties' for awhile, imo.

Interesting TIME article about root cause of the US financial crisis .... not sure I agree but put a different spin on what I've read and believed before:"There is no doubt that the pressure on the U.S. financial system [that led to the financial crisis] came from abroad," says Caballero, who is the head of MIT's economics department.