Truly, an 85,000 house and you already have 20k in it... paying that off and totally having straight cash flow can be nice.

It might make more sense to buy a unit as a straight investment vs. getting a home and partially rent it out while you live there.

I had one for a while....it does very little if anything for an investor - except of course, providing you with some knowledge - which you can get anyway.People seem to think that it gives you an advantage by cutting out the buyer's agent, and reducing the price by that 2.5%, but this is not always the case.If you do some searches on the forum you will find many posts on this....

Offer a straight-across trade for the desired property if you think it's all that.

Didn’t read all 49 pages but some questions/recommendations - don’t mention radon unless your state requires it, it just confuses people - add an early lease termination fee, makes the process very cut and dry if a tenant wants to break a lease early.

Needed little work and tenants were decent. straight forward purchase What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Additionally, they cut a small hole in the fence so SDG&E (the utility company here) can read the meter from the empty lot.

Then it's a paperwork nightmare and most things you thought were straight-out covered, somehow are not. 

They of course want their tax cut. - Srini 

Hi Micheal,If it were mine.HUD gives a 15 year service life for cabinet tops.For instance if the age is 10 years, meaning 5 years (33.3%) of the service life leftI would charge for 33.3% of the cost of the replacement (parts and labor) that I had to write a check for.Owner labor is typically not billed, because you don't cut yourself a check for the labor.Make a point of telling new renters not to put hot pots or irons on the new surface (they probably didn't know any better).Here is a service life list for you.