There are lots of guru wannabies and b.s. artists, however there is some good material out there.

If you see other flooring material, peel it back.

What can also help in estimating repairs is becoming familiar with the cost of materials.

However, if your goal is to get around the redemption period on a tax title deed, I caution you as to any deceptive consumer practices.Indiana is a property judgment state and has stringent consumer protection laws as to material misrepresentations, unconscionable and fraudulent acts.

This was a ton of work and luckily we are both pretty well versed in such things.Because we did almost all of the work on this ourselves, carefully sourced the labor for those things we needed help on and purchased materials in the most penny pinching method you can imagine, our total rehab costs were $14,568.36 making our total investment $27,729.26.This was a very tough neighborhood but one that did have a good number of owner/occupants scattered among a fair number of renters.

The color scheme we used here is one of our designer’s, Rebecca Mager-Cordle of www.annleeinteriors.com, most popular choices, and we included all the SKU numbers for these materials in this blog!

But few high-end installations that folks might ooh and ahh over will have a short 4" backsplash -- even if done in nice materials -- so the 4" backsplash can become a visual cue that the project is not high end -- a subtle but immediate trigger. 

They will also remove any affected materials that cannot be treated with detergent/water solution.Once the remediation work is completed, have the mold inspection company come back out for a re-test. 

Interesting, Darren, my definition is very close to yours, but I'd say there is another important element, the quality of the information given.To me, the derogatory use of the term is applied to those that add fluff, exaggerations, aspects that while may be technically correct but are highly improbable to replicate or simply put out bad advice with no consideration to ethical issues.I make that distinction because, some professor in some university teaching a real estate course or some instructor in a state approved real estate school for agents isn't a guru, they are teachers and instructors.The difference in being a non-guru teacher is two fold, 1. the materials taught are compliant with rules, regulations, laws, accepted in practice and are based in sound applications of the business; and 2. they are qualified by education and experience, by education that has some professional level that is determined by proof of their mastering a level of knowledge, testing and degrees earned or certifications by proper authorities in the industry or academia.

Most contractors won't (and shouldn't) break down materials on their estimates, but maybe you will get lucky and one will.