A year later an inspector came over telling me not only none of the units is legal but there is an open citation on the property since 2006 and the previous owner was suppose to get rid of the illegal stair case in the front as well as converting one unit to a garage and building a ramp.

If that is not the case then just admit that you are pitching and make your case in the "market place" and don't pitch people who are looking for unbiased advice in the open forums.

It is not the case in Berlin real estate.

Case in point, is telling me my counter-offer was approved but letting ME discover that the EMD money had increased by a factor of 4 when the agent sent me the paperwork. 

@Dan Gongora A good case-in-point I recently experienced in Chicago.

Case in point: These people weren't the brightest of folks and they were pretty upset they were unable to purchase the house.

:Then if supply is that tight and demand strong, investors are rational in assuming that prices will have a tendency to increase -- at least this is usually the case in cities where land is so scarce that to build anything new, you literally have to tear down some existing structure to build something new on it.Of course if house prices move in sync with wage growth, there theoretically shouldn't be an issue -- but it usually doesn't.

During the months of February and March that was the case in Texas.

The key is to (always) buy  with the worst case in mind, so if things go south for a while with the economy, etc, you're still in a position of having income, even if it's decreased somewhat.Remember, when housing goes bust, more ppl need to rent.

There is one case in the news currently about a single family in city owned assisted housing building that simply refuses to move.