I'm still discovering new things about BiggerPockets all the time - and I've been on for years!

It's not that some appraisers are smarter than others (though certainly that's true), but more importantly, appraisals have a component that is based on pure opinion and personal experience.Further, because appraisal values on a property will generally fall into a perfectly valid range, your goal is to get the appraiser to determine that your property is at the high(er) end of that perfectly valid range, not the lower end.

BiggerPockets is what gave me the big push years ago to become a real estate investor - and I'm glad to see you've discovered the immense value in it.We'll have to do a Washington meetup someday soon!

The only difference you may run into is an endorsement where you opt to replace historical materials with a cheaper modern component when rebuilding.

I'd much rather focus my money on an upgraded kitchen and bath - things that will get buyers to open up their wallet - rather than fixing up broken systems that everyone expects to be in place.Once you start getting into the repairs, you're going to discover all kinds of things to fix and upgrade.

Q1) I discovered that the agent that showed me the house - was a previous owner back in '98; and she added the covenants!

Along the way, I discovered BiggerPockets and changed course.

This is what I see when I click on the Pro link I was given, using Chrome with Windows 7.What I discovered was that, for some reason, when I use IE, the link takes me to the intended page.

I've been reading the forums for a few months and have learned a lot but have also discovered I have a long way to go.

This is because as components age and wear they do not operate as new.