I absolutely do my best to "help" the appraiser in my favor, including delivering a packet of the comps I hope he uses, a summary and detailed break out of my rehab and the hard-money/purchase appraisal if I have it. 

The other side of the coin if there is a challenge with the property ( you fired contractors, discrepancies, whatever always let the PML know as soon as possible, but have a solution for the complication.John, hey this is Bernie we had to fire our 1st set of workers, because they stole material, but the good news is we have already replaced them, and we won't miss any progress.It truly is not difficult to find money, we must change our mindset, and believe we are doing them the favor, not the other way around.

Now that we're comfortable with the process, it's time to start using some of the creating financing techniques out there in order to purchase properties in a cheaper fashion.

That said, I personally favor rental properties for this market since there's so many available for very reasonable prices.Since you're just starting out keep up the research and try to put in some time here on the forums.

Feel free to add me to your list as I will return the favor....

Although fire is never a good thing for properties, it worked in our favor since we lowered our asking price to 12k.

Regarding IRA investing - I would reserve that for highly taxed (or not tax-favored) activities like flipping or wholesaling.  

If you are already paying implementing those items is good but to switch to that system I would not favor.

We had a house built in the Bremerton area when we first got there and in good navy fashion I did not stay very long.

I'm favorably impressed with a couple of Bob's posts, and will look for some of Troys.