His carriage and demeanor make me apprehensive and when I had the chance to meet him and asked questions about income / profession he was a touch evasive and contradicted himself (mentioning an engineering career, then being retired, then working in retail all in the same window).

My brother will be an incoming freshman there as well for engineering. 

There will be more layoffs, more bankruptcies, more companies fold, and more money printed than at any time in history.The stimulus was just a quick run out to get everything they wanted politically in one quick swoop, all while making Americans feel it was all in their best interest, and giving them false hope that Uncle Sam is coming to the rescue.This is "Politics 101"While unfortunate, It is my honest opinion that we can not rebuild all of this until it completely burns down.

I have seen a lot of engineers and finance professionals buy property based on spreadsheets and demographic data.

Do not buy something (a rooming house, for instance) that is 'grandfathered' in because if it burns down, well, there's no rebuilding it.Speaking of zoning, beware the two groups who control it: city hall and the voters.

Your best bet is to have an engineer look at it.

I have called 20 local banks trying to get a portfolio loan, but they have all been burned badly on the local condo market and will not carry it.

So I sat down, wrote an algorithm and software with an engineer and now the tool runs so smoothly we have a VA overseas do the reports on every deal in-house.This is helpful for our acquisitions team because the homeowners are always appreciative that we did our "homework" before we called them.Now we don't chance down Realtors and call our sellers back 3 days later.

I guess it beats burning the docs in the bathtub.

We always do...some I have burned as DVD slideshows for the kids I am helping get into RE.I find it great for keeping a log of all the things you should have done differently....Also if your wife is taking b4 pics while someone is sanding the drywall the lens will be caked in dust & all future pics will be barely visible until you realize it & clean the lens !!!!!