The neighbor also has a sump pump dumping water in his backyard even when it's been dry, I have no idea why.

Undoubtedly the wood is arriving from a super dry warehouse somewhere in SE Calgary, not exactly a climate controlled environment.

Since you have more cash available you can then even with limited financing available in a down turn can take advantage of low priced deals.In another example if you have very to little debt on properties when lending dries up will be harder to access a good amount of your equity with a loan to take advantage in down cycle to buy more properties.No strategy is fool proof  but does make sense.  

I've seen a mix of comments regarding the note market being dry (no more inventory) and the ROI starting to come down from the 10-12% range.  

I can't imagine booking a vacation and then finding out where you want to stay is a sham and you are left high and dry.

Then wash again and let dry.

so far I only spoke to a high end sound attenuation company out of NYC, they offer a similar product which is about $4/sq ft not including dry wall.

It is the classic Arizona "low maintenance" lawn style: patches of grass, mostly weeds, and lots of very dry dirt. 

Property manager also recommends tearing out part of the dry wall between the kitchen and bathroom to check for mold... there were some dark mildew/mold like spots on the wall under the kitchen sink... seems like overkill, what do you guys think?

The nature of the beast is realize that there will be dry streaks and also realizing there will be times when you're on fire.