If you know you'll hold it shorter term, don't pay a premium for a long term loan and focus on an adjustable.If you are confident in having a short time frame to hold, you might consider a loan with significant negative points, resulting in a sizable cash bonus covering not only the closing costs but giving you some cash back from the lender (or pay down your balance a bit), in exchange for a higher interest rate.  

I'd take your existing colors to the tile department and see if they have have any sales on something that would work.If the moldings and doors etc in the rest of the house are wood like in the kitchen, then painting the kitchen frame white won't work.

Such as taxes, title insurance, PMI premium.

Porcelain tile kitchen floors and splashes, dark granite counters, medium tone "shaker" wood cabs. natural wood is easier to touch up with Old English when damaged.

One caution on tile, aside from the obvious labor: Depending on the flooring in the adjacent room, new floor tile that resembles wood would look up to date.

If you contact a foundation repair company they have a material that they inject under the concrete that will raise it up even, then you just have a minor cement repair that can be masked with a rough finish on the entire porch.Or remove it and put in a wood porch.

I can see the costs going up with an upswing in orders with premiums shooting up and owners trying to get out of the coverage.

The bank assigned an insurance company and their premiums skyrocketed.

After a year here, I have found that there has been positive signs of growth in the area and I haven't had any crime issues so far (knock on wood).

The Ultra was about $1.00 more per square foot, and looked more like real wood to me.