In those cases, the most cost effective way to air seal and obtain any significant insulation is closed cell foam.I would prefer another material - I've even looked into  air-crete as an alternative - though it has its own embodied energy issues and there are claims it's not nearly as effective or stable as claimed.Many of the walls are in fair shape, but we will still be required to redo the bottom 8" if we remove the present hydronic baseboards in favour of heat pumps and/or resistant electrical baseboards.  

I've had at least one with a young teenager who made me REALLY glad I carry a water key in my truck from what they left behind if you know what I mean).Once the place it rented and with SFH it's up the tenants to take care of the all the utilities except, perhaps, trash pickup.Gail

We can use that time to improve our credit scores even more (they are both sitting right at about 680 for each of us), pay down our existing mortgage even more and search for financing via alternate sources.  

I have a truck that I owe 26,000 on.

@Chris Mason I know this is a really old thread but got a question: for a married couple to get to 20 conventional loans by alternating mortgages, is it critical that they are each only on title for the properties that they purchase of can both of them be on title for all 20 properties?

It did have pipes that did burst, but like Account Closed the work was above ground and in the walls.An alternative that I looked into was re-piping the home in PEX through the attic.

Any alternate strategy recommendations?

Before you throw a deal away, explore all alternatives.

In this conversation however I have yet to hear an alternative hedge strategy aside from "it probably won't happen".

Actually had the city garbage crane truck pick up 2 or 3 large piles of additional waste since then.